Moments in Time
by sheriffandsteel
Summary: An assorted collection of Bethyl drabbles.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note- These are a collection of Bethyl drabbles I wrote for Tumblr prompts. None of them tie into one another so feel free to read them in whatever order you like.

The door to the house groaned in protest as Daryl eased it open with one hand, a skinned rabbit dangling from his other one. The sound of his boots against the wood floor was the first noise that had filled the house besides Beth's quiet sobs in days.

The house was eerily silent as Daryl padded through it, he could hear a drop of blood as it dripped off of the rabbit and onto the floor. He scanned each room in search of her, it was harder to find her without the sound of her tears to guide him. She was not laying curled on her side on the couch as she had spent the majority of the last few days, nor was she sobbing as she threw up what little he could get her to force down over the trashcan in the out of order bathroom. Daryl weaved his way through every room his heart beginning to beat faster with worry at each vacant area.

He didn't think he would be able to go on if she was gone too.

As he walked past the kitchen a flash of color out of the large bay window caught his eye and he stopped in his tracks. Peering through the dirty glass his eyes fell upon a light blue t-shirt clothing shaking shoulders. Slowly he placed the rabbit carcass on the table and headed to the back door where he paused and looked out for a moment to collect himself.

Beth stood with her bare arms crossed against her chest, shivering from a combination of cold and the force of her crying as she stood in front of a small wooden cross. Daryl felt his heart sputter as his eyes fell on the cross and he had to turn away from the sight so that he could breathe again.

When they had first learned that Beth was pregnant they had both known the risks that they had just set upon themselves. Daryl had been sure that Beth would end up like Lori and not make it through the childbirth, that he would be left alone with his grief and their child. He had spent countless nights imagining the heart crushing pain that her death would bring him, trying to decide how he would be able to look at their child without blaming it for killing the love of his life.

But never once, in any of those sleepless nights, did he imagine this.

After hours of screaming herself hoarse and bleeding more than Daryl thought humans could without a fatal wound Beth had given birth to a boy with a crop of tangled dark hair. The moment that they laid their eyes on him Beth and Daryl had felt their love and their hearts grow to include him.

And then they felt their hearts stutter in fear for how small he was.

How weak his heartbeat was.

How few breaths he drew.

They held their child in shaking hands as he drew his last breath not even minutes after he had taken his first, and then, as one, their hearts shattered

Four days had past since Daryl had wrapped their son in a blanket and buried him in a wooden trunk in the backyard of the house he was born in. Four days had past since they had placed the wooden cross in the troubled dirt and stared in silence at the small grave of their child. Four days since either had said a word, for really what was there left to say?

The back door opened silently as Daryl slipped outside into the brisk air and walked up beside Beth. She did not look at him as he stopped next to her and joined her silent vigilant over the grave of their son. Their arms were pressed against each other and he could feel her trembling form shaking roughly. Slowly he removed his jacket and turned to drape it over her shoulders. For a moment she did not move but then her shaking hands went up to grip the jacket to her chest tightly.

Daryl felt he should say something, knew he should say something, to ease her broken heart. But he did not know what he could possibly say that would cure her when he could not even cure himself.

"Do you think he's happy?" her voice was weak, broken, a mere shadow of what it was not even a week ago when they toyed around with the feel of baby names on their tongues.

Daryl shrugged, he didn't know what happened to people when they died. He didn't believe in God, never had before the turn and sure as shit didn't after. Even if there was some divine higher power he wasn't to sure what he felt about one who was cruel enough to put their people through this hell, this pain. That wasn't the kind of answer that Beth wanted, nor was that the kind of answer Beth needed. He tried to think of what her sister would say if she were here but he kept coming up blank. Merle was the only sibling he had ever had and he wasn't exactly the best example of showing sibling affection. The thought of Maggie however drew his mind to Herschel and the one thing he could think of to say that would make Beth's heart feel a bit less broken.

"Maybe he's with your father." Daryl grunted with a shrug.

Beth's gaze moved slowly from the cross to peer over at him with bright tear filled eyes, Daryl met her gaze as best as he could, he could feel a burn behind his own eyelids as he stared down at her and found the words that had been evading both of them for days.

"Lori will look after him." he whispered, his voice beginning to fail him as some of his pain leaked out on her name. "Or Andrea. Your mom." he shrugged and fought to gain control over himself as she stared up at him with her large and hurt eyes.

"Maybe he's with your brother or." Daryl paused and swallowed against the lump forming in his throat. "Or mine."

Daryl shook his head at himself before reaching forward and pulling Beth into his hold, wrapping his arms tight around her. She clung to him tightly and he could feel the warm wetness of her tears staining his shirt as he rested his chin on the top of her head, the curls of her tangled hair tickling his face.

"They'll look after him Beth." he whispered comfortingly, surprised to find that he actually believed himself as the words left his mouth. "They'll look after Herschel until we can do it ourselves."


	2. Chapter 2

"Daddy daddy!" the small childlike cry pulled him from slumber and Daryl woke slowly to the heavy weight resting on his chest. He cracked open an eye to peer at the small child sitting cross legged on his chest, her small sticky fingers poking at his cheeks.

Groaning he reached over to grab the child's arms and lifted her up as she squealed and giggled against his hold as he moved into a sitting position. "What's up Abby?" he asked as he settled her onto his lap sighing as she cuddled against his chest.

The gray light of dawn was just beginning to make its way into the room and Daryl sighed at the realization that once again he had risen before the sun.

"Will you tell me a story?" Abigail asked as she peered up at him with large blue eyes that to this day made Daryl's heart clench in pain at the sight.

He sighed and rested his head against the back of the couch. "About what?"

Abby's face crinkled in thought in one of the few traits she had actually gotten from him before smiling. "Tell me about Mommy!" she cried excitedly as she twisted in his lap to stare at him expectantly.

Daryl closed his eyes briefly in pain before nodding. He was not surprised by this request, nearly every other day she asked him to tell her about her mother. In truth Daryl loved these moments. Despite the pain that it caused him it allowed him to reminisce on the one woman he had ever dared to love.

"Your mother was a very sweet girl." he began as Abby gazed at him longingly for words of a woman she would never get to meet. He stared back at her, taking in her small heart shaped face and large blue eyes. He tugged on a strand of her unruly blonde hair. "You look just like her." he admitted in a whisper. For the first few weeks after Abby had been born Daryl had been unable to look at her. He had to close his eyes when he fed her because the sight of her blue eyes on his nearly made his heart shatter in despair.

Daryl had refused to name her for months, he had felt no emotional connection to his own daughter as he changed and fed her and tried to calm her cries. He knew he should love her, was supposed to love her, that Beth expected him to love their daughter even more than he had loved her. But he couldn't. When he looked at her all he could see was the thing that had killed the love of his life. He blamed the child almost as much as he blamed himself for Beth's death. If they had been more careful, if he had tried harder to find a doctor, she would still be here. For months Daryl took care of his unnamed baby like it was a chore until one day as he fed her she smiled at him.

And the whole world stopped turning.

Her smile, just like every other part of her, was a carbon copy of Beth's. Daryl had never thought he would see that smile again. He had clutched his daughter to his chest and cried for hours on the dirty floor of the preschool he had broken into and slowly felt his heart begin to expand enough to let her creep in.

Despite that, Daryl still didn't name her for weeks until he stumbled upon a baby name book in the pharmacy where he was stealing formula. He had held his daughter in the crook of his arm as he flipped through names, saying each one aloud. Whether he was asking her or Beth for approval he wasn't sure of.

When he had said the name "Abigail" out loud his daughter had smiled widely at him and Daryl felt that was the choice all three of them were in agreement on. Abigail, joy of the father.

It took time but slowly the pain of his daughter began to ease and he stopped blaming her for the death of her mother, and though it took even longer he stopped blaming himself. Now, over two years after her birth Daryl no longer blamed either of them for their loss and he was able to look at his daughter and see parts of himself in her as well as parts of Beth.

"She liked to sing." Daryl continued as Abby hung onto his every word, her heart surely aching as much as his at the thought of Beth. "She had the best voice I had ever heard." he admitted as he closed his eyes, the phantom sound of her voice in his ears.

"Can I sing?" Abby asked quietly as she peered at him with her large blue eyes.

Daryl shrugged. "Why don't you try?" he asked her as he tugged on a strand of her hair the way he did with Beth that always made her swat his hand away.

Abby frowned at her hands clearly trying to remember one of the songs she had heard. There wasn't many as Daryl never sang and the only songs she heard were from music players he could find that still had working batteries. She finally settled on making up her own song and as she opened her mouth to spew forth the nonsensically stung together words Daryl was pleasantly surprised to find that Beth had left them both with this gift as well.


	3. Chapter 3

The sound of children's laughter never failed to bring a smile to Beth's lips. She sat on the top porch step and watched as her daughter managed to get the soccer ball away from her two older brothers.

"That's my girl Summer." she whispered under her breath as the girl sprinted away from the boys with a peel of giggles, dirt flying up behind her heels.

"She's a fast one."a deep voice commented from behind her and Beth grinned to herself as she looked over her shoulder where Daryl stood, his shadow falling across her. He reached down with a tall glass of lemonade and she took it with a grateful smile. The glass was warm to the touch and Beth knew the liquid in it would likely be no cooler than the humid summer air causing seat to bead at the nape of her neck. She found herself wishing longingly for ice and sighed to herself at how often she thought of something new that she took for granted before the turn.

Daryl settled down on the porch next to her and propped his elbows on his knees as he watched their children tear across the overgrown lawn, the grass a vibrant green in the Georgia summer heat. They sat in silence for a moment just watching before Daryl moved and reached his hand into his pocket. He fumbled for a moment before he pulled out his hand and held it out to Beth. She looked down at his closed fist before glancing back up at him, one eyebrow raised in question.

He sighed and grabbed her empty hand where it rested on her lap. Daryl flipped her hand so it rested palm up and before she could say anything he dropped something into it. She felt a cool metal slide across her palm and looked up at Daryl. He was resolutely looking away from her to keep an eye on the children, even with the recent scarcity of walkers one could never be too safe.

Beth opened her hand slowly and gasped at the sight of the small silver necklace resting in her palm. She held her breath as she rose her fist, letting the chain dangle down. A small silver music note hung from the end of the chain. A smile spread across her face as she turned to face Daryl.

"Its beautiful." she whispered as she turned away from him, "Help me put it on." she passed him back the chain as she bundled her hair on the top of her head. Daryl fingers were warm against her skin as he fastened the chain around her neck.

Beth clung to the music note as she turned back to face him, her eyes bright on his. "What's the occasion?" she asked softly.

Daryl shrugged before turning back to watch their children, the twins had managed to get the ball away from Summer and she was now laughing as they kicked the ball past her.

"Five years today." he grunted, taring his away from the kids to meet her eyes. "Since we." he shrugged again. "You know." he mumbled.

Beth blinked at him before a grin broke across her face. "Since we what?" she teased.

Daryl glared at her lightly before mumbling something at her. Deciding she had teased him enough Beth ran her fingers over the music note as she surveyed the yard where their children played. Five years ago she never would have thought she could feel such happiness as she did at that moment.

"Thank you." she whispered turning to meet his eyes again. "But you're wrong."

Daryl furrowed his brows at her in confusion before she continued with a grin. "Its five years _tomorrow."_


	4. Lost

Going to college in Atlanta wasn't necessarily hard, as Beth Greene had found out by the end of her first week, it was simply _terrifying. _

Not so much her classes or the dorms, not even the campus itself. But the city was a whole other story.

Having grown up in a small farm town Beth was unaccustomed to city life. The noise, the smells, the _people_. Everywhere she turned there was a stranger pushing past her. She constantly felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things happening around her. Beth was beginning to think that Maggie had been right, city life was just not for everyone.

Of course it wasn't just the people that overwhelmed her, there was also the sheer amount of buildings and cars. The buildings towered over her and she felt that at any moment she might be crushed. She longed for the open air and sky of the farm but she had resolved to herself to stick out the year in the big city. Maybe by that time she would actually be able to find her way back to campus from the music store she liked downtown.

But right now, on her first trip back from the store, she was hopelessly and irrefutably lost. Beth bit her lip as she looked at the street sign before her. She had no memory of this corner or this area from her long walk to the store. She did not have the money for a cab and had no idea what bus she should get on. Running her fingers through her hair Beth scanned the area around her as if hoping she would suddenly see an arrow pointing her in the right direction.

"Lost?" a gruff voice suddenly said from behind her.

Beth turned with a small jump of fright to see a well muscled man standing a foot from her. He was wearing a sleeveless vest and it took her a moment to tear her eyes from the muscles of his arms to look at him. She couldn't help noticing that he had a nice face as she nodded in response to his question.

"Do you know how to get to the campus?" she asked quietly as she forced herself to look at his eyes and not stare at his arms.

The man nodded. "My shop is a block away from it." he admitted with a shrug before he cleared his throat. "I was headed back now."

He let the statement hang between them for a moment before Beth grabbed it like a lifeline. She knew she shouldn't trust strange men but for some reason she felt this man wouldn't hurt her. Besides, she didn't know how she would get back without him.

"Would you mind if we walked together?" Beth asked quickly.

The man shrugged again as he started to walk off, Beth hurrying after him down the crowded streets.


	5. Chapter 5

The first time it happened Daryl didn't even realize it. It was a few weeks after they had escaped from Terminus and mere days after they had happened to run into Beth in the little storefront she had been holed up in. They needed food so Daryl, who had been the group's main hunter since the escape, decided to go out and see what meager meal he could scrounge up for them.

He had just put his hand on his bow when Beth jumped up from where she sat next to Maggie and grabbed her knife off the floor to follow him. No one ever accompanied Daryl on his hunts, despite the worries that Rick and Abraham presented about him being off on his own, but Daryl always insisted that he needed the time by himself and that if he was gone for longer than half an hour they could create a damn search party for him.

But when Beth began to follow him to the door Daryl found that he did not mind. They had spent weeks together on the road, he was used to traveling with her in silence so he knew that he could still hunt with her. Besides, they hadn't had a moment to be alone since they had found each other and he couldn't deny that the prospect of a few moments alone with her excited him.

The rest of the group did not seem to be surprised when she followed him out the door, they had done it with so little fanfare that Daryl was sure no one had even noticed. As Beth was shutting the door behind them Daryl heard Glenn distinctively call out, "Safety first guys!"

Daryl had assumed that Glenn was telling them to be safe on the hunt, which he thought was stupid because he was always safe out there.

The second time it happened Daryl assumed Glenn was just being strange. It was a few days later and Beth and him were sitting next to each other in the back of the truck that they had hot-wired to take them on to DC. Beth had fallen asleep next to him and at some point her head fell upon Glenn's shoulder who was sitting on her other side. Glenn had met Daryl's eye before lightly moving Beth over to rest against Daryl's shoulder.

At Daryl's confused face all Glenn did was shrug and give him a small half smirk. "Thought she'd be more comfortable."

The third time Daryl began to wonder if there was a joke that he was not in on.

They were all sitting around their low burning fire, the remains of rabbit grease still stuck to their fingers, when Rick announced that they should all try to get some sleep. Daryl was not on first watch so he stretched out on the dirt on the outskirts of the firelight and rested his head on his arms. He had just closed his eyes when he heard Glenn say softly.

"You know Beth I think it looks a lot more comfortable over there. You know, next to Daryl."

He heard a noise that sounded like a light slap as a few of the group snorted or chuckled but when Daryl opened his eyes Beth was making her way across the group towards him. Even in the fading firelight he could see the light pink blush on her cheeks.

The fourth time it happened Daryl was sure he was simply over thinking things

They were once again sitting in the back of the truck as it creeped among the numerous abandoned cars cluttering the interstate. Daryl was trying to remove the dried blood and brains from some of his arrows as the truck rattled alone when Glenn interrupted the silence.

"You should sing Beth." he said as he wrapped his arm around Maggie's shoulder and looked across the truck to where Beth sat pressed against Daryl's side in the close quarters.

She made a small surprised sound at his request before she blushed and twisted her hands in her lap.

"What do you want me to sing?"

"Well what's Daryl's favorite song?" Glenn asked, a teasing tone light in his voice. Daryl looked up in time to see Maggie bite her lip and look away but before he could say anything Beth began to sing the opening lyrics of his favorite song and he shut his mouth with a snap as he stared at her.

The fifth time it happened, Daryl finally realized what was happening.

The group had stopped for the night, the fire had long since burned out as Daryl kept watch over their small camp. His crossbow rested in his lap as his eyes scanned the darkness surrounding them, his ears peeled for any signs of danger.

Only the sound of the other's breathing reached his ears before he heard a small sigh. His eyes followed the sound to where Beth lay only a few feet away, curled on her side. As he looked at her she slowly sat up, and with her blanket wrapped tight around her shoulders she crawled over to sit next to him. Daryl was not surprised as this happened almost every night he kept watch.

Beth always slept next to him so he knew how little sleep she actually managed to gain at night. They never discussed the nightmares that kept her awake but Daryl had woken up to her panting breath and fingers clawing at the dirt more than once to know that they wouldn't talk about it until she brought it up first.

Neither of them said anything as she joined him in his silent vigil over the group.

They sat in silence for a long moment before Beth whispered. "There's so many stars."

Daryl looked over to see her head tilted up towards the gap in the trees above them, the night sky cluttered with pinpricks of light above them. He grunted in response.

"Its the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Beth continued causing Daryl to look over at her. The starlight illuminated her face and her blue eyes were bright and wide as she gazed up at the night sky.

"Have you ever seen something so beautiful?" she whispered tearing her eyes away from the sky to look over at Daryl who shifted nervously at having been caught staring.

Perhaps it was that nervousness that made him blurt out "Yes."

As Beth opened her mouth, most likely to ask him what, there was a groan from one of the sleeping figures a few feet away.

"Would you two just shut up and kiss already?" Glenn groaned as he rolled over in his blankets to glare at them.

Daryl felt his brow furrow in confusion as Glenn shook his head and turned away. Daryl turned slowly to look over at Beth who met his eyes shyly. She shrugged nervously as Daryl's mind finally began to click in place everything that had been happening between them lately.

Her hand was soft under his chin as she tilted his head down to meet hers but her lips against his were even softer.


	6. Chapter 6

Every breath felt like a stab to the chest as Beth stumbled through the last of the tree line, branches cutting her face as she fell out onto the clear shoulder of a road. Panting she slipped and fell onto the asphalt, the skin of her palms and knees breaking open as she fell onto them. For a moment she did not move, simply huddled on all fours in the last of the remaining daylight as she struggled to control her breathing.

When she could finally hear other noises than the sound of her own desperate gasps for air Beth struggled to her feet. Her ankle had not healed completely right from the sprain she received when she caught it in the animal trap, what felt like years ago. Darting desperate looks at the woods behind her Beth decided to risk staying on the road. At least here she could see the danger coming at her. In the woods she would be running blind.

As the sun rose before her the fact that she had actually escaped began to sink in. It was over. She was gone.

A dry sob escaped her lips, she clapped her hands over her mouth to keep the sound in. Her captors were not the only dangers out here after all. She was weaponless, having only escaped with the clothes on her back. She never would have gotten away had it not been for that lone loose nail in the floorboards of the room they had kept her and her unwavering patience as she picked open the door. The men had still been sleeping already when she had crept passed them out the door. Her heart had never beat so fast as it had in the crossing of that seemingly endless room.

By the time the sun had risen before her Beth's breathing was back under control. She caught sight of several walkers in the woods and only just managed to outrun them enough for them to get distracted by something else. Her fingers itched for a weapon as she continued on.

She was just deciding to risk the woods to search for something when she caught sight of something on the road before her. Her heart froze in terror as she realized that the two figures before her were walking with more purpose than walkers. Beth turned to fade into the trees when her eyes fell on three walkers heading out towards her. Just she moved to run back the way she had came the roar of a car's engine filled her ears.

Her heart began to pound like a bass drum as she spun in a quick circle, trying to decide which was the least evil to head towards. Deciding she would take her chances with the unknown she began to run towards the two figures in the distance.

The sound of the car approaching drowned out the pounding of her feet against the pavement. Beth could feel the car getting closer and a sudden fear that her captors might be content with simply running her over filled her. With the car only feet from her she suddenly darted to her left and raced through the trees as fast as she could. Bushes tangled around her ankles and branches stung cuts on her arms and face but she pressed on. She heard the sequel of breaks behind her and familiar male voices yelling. Her heart beat so fast she thought she might explode as the sound of car doors slamming reached her ears. The sound of rustling foliage informed her she was no longer alone in the trees and she slide behind a large one to catch her breath and wait for the men to pick a direction to look for her, so she could head the other way.

The sound of one of them whistling filled her ears and she felt her blood boil at them thinking that they could call to her like a dog. Seeing a large rock beside her she picked it up,the weight unfamiliar but strangely comforting in her hand. The footsteps began to fade as they turned a different ways in the trees and Beth held her breath so that she would not breath out the sigh of relief she was feeling.

Trees rustled to the other side of her and she heard a long familiar voice whisper.

"I swear there was a girl running from them."

Heart beating a tattoo against her rib cage Beth struggled to her feet, the rock falling from her suddenly numb hands. "Rick." she breathed.

"You can call me that if you want." a deep voice whispered next to her ear as hands closed around her arms. Beth let out a startled scream before the man moved his hand to cover her mouth. She kicked her feet and struggled against his hold as he lifted her off the ground and began to drag her backwards.

"Hurry up." the voice of one of her other captors hit her ears and Beth began to twist wildly. She would not go back there, she would not be their prisoner again.

The other of her captors, the smaller one moved into her line of sight and twisting in the hold against her Beth managed to slam her boot into the side of his face. He let out a yelp as he went down. In the back of her mind Beth recognized the sound of the foliage being frantically pushed aside but she was focusing to much on getting out of the hold to think about what it meant. She had just managed to get the hand off of her mouth when the man before her, who was in the process of raising back to his feet, suddenly fell forward with a muffled 'oh'. He fell at her feet and Beth stared in shock at the wooden bolt protruding from his head.

The man holding her cursed and just as she moved to struggle again she felt his grip go slack. The man fell to the ground, his arms falling from Beth who barely got her weight on her feet in time to not topple down with him.

For a moment she did not move, simply stared down at the corpses of two of the men who had tormented her for weeks. Slowly she tore her eyes away to look behind her. And there they were.

Rick clutched a bloody knife in his hands as he stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. She felt a smile begin to stretch on her lips at the sight of his familiar face. Her eyes darted then to the man next to him, to the face she never thought she would get to see again.

"Daryl." she whispered. For a moment he simply locked eyes with her, both of them saying without words everything they were thinking in that moment. The smile on her face so wide her face began to hurt, Beth stepped around the corpse before her and stumbled forward into Daryl's waiting arms.


	7. Secret

Bethyl Week Day One- Secret

"Where are you taking me Greene?" Daryl grumbled under his breath as he tried to peer around the slim fingers that were currently covering his eyes.

He heard Beth tut reproachfully under her breath. "Its called a secret for a reason Daryl." she whined teasingly. "And no peeking!"

Daryl grunted but nevertheless closed his eyes, all while wondering how she had managed to know he was looking past her closed fingers.

"We're almost there anyway." she admitted sheepishly. "Oh we're heading up some stairs now. There's ten of them, I counted earlier."

Daryl felt out to his side for the railing but it seemed that either he did not remember at what length stair guard rails usually were at, this one did not have one, or he was badly judging its dimensions. After a few seconds of him blindly fumbling Beth took pity on him and removed one of her hands from his eyes to grab his hand and place it gently on the railing. He would have told her thank you but his throat seemed to have closed up at the feel of her skin against his like some pathetic school boy.

Although when it came to Beth Greene, Daryl Dixon very much resembled a pathetic school boy.

"Just a few more feet." Beth whispered after they manged to somehow make it up the flight of stairs. Daryl hoped very much that her sister was not about to run up the stairs after them or that Carl wouldn't suddenly decide he needed to learn how to track at this very moment. Even though they had found Beth weeks ago this felt like the first time Daryl had truly been alone with her.

Well since the rest of the group was still camping out the snow storm in the apartment building they were currently climbing the stairs in Daryl really did't know if he could count this as alone.

Beth slipped her fingers from his eyes with a whisper warning him not to peek. He heard a scrap of metal before a frigid blast of shockingly cold air suddenly hit him full in the face, almost causing him to open his eyes in surprise. Only the thought of Beth's disappointed face stopped him from doing so.

The sounds of something heavy being moved filled his ears and then suddenly Beth's cold hands were on his tugging him gently forward.

"We have to be quiet." she whispered to him, suddenly so close he could feel her breath warm against his ear. Daryl had never believed people when they said muting one sense sharpened all the others but boy did he believe them now. Never in his whole life had he felt so aware of another person as he did of Beth Greene in that moment. He felt like he could feel every muscle and bone in the hands that were holding his. He could smell the scent of lavender soap that she must have lifted from one of the apartments and the mintiness of the gum Glenn had passed out earlier. Daryl could hear every soft breath she took and the sound of that alone was enough to drive him crazy.

He had gone so long thinking that he would never see her again that at this moment, even with all these signs that she was right here with him, it was almost all to much. He needed to actually _see _her.

"Can I open my eyes now Greene?" he finally grunted when it became apparent that she was't going to say anything.

"Oh!" Beth let out a startled noise of surprise and he felt a strand of her ponytail hit him in the face as she most likely looked around them. "Yes you can open them now."

With trepidation Daryl slowly eased his eyes open, immediately having to blink at the startling brightness of it all. Beth had taken him up to the empty roof of the apartment building, the only things up there them and the access door which she had propped open with a cement block. The sun was only just now beginning to make its way down past the horizon and it was reflecting brilliantly on the foot of snow that had fallen over the city the past two days.

Beth had led him to one of the edges and peering down Daryl could see only a heavy layer of whiteness covering the tattered streets below like a blanket. From this distance he could not see walkers or corpses littering the streets. Daryl turned in a slow circle to take in the sight of the first truly peaceful looking scene he had laid his eyes on in what felt like his whole life.

"I found it this morning." Beth whispered as she stepped forward to lean against the roof's wall barrier which hit perfectly at her hips. Her soft pale hands cupped the edge and she leaned over to look down at the streets. Daryl felt a sudden irrational urge to grab her and pull her back.

"Its so peaceful." she breathed, as though she was afraid her voice would shatter the startling tranquility of it all.

Daryl nodded as he moved to stand next to her. "Why just show me?" he finally asked after they stood for a few moments in silence.

Beth turned to look up at him questioningly before a small shy smile crossed her face. "I thought you could use something beautiful." she admitted with a shrug as she crossed her arms against the cold.

"I don't." the words slipped past his lips before he really thought them through. As a look of embarrassment passed over Beth's face Daryl wished desperately that he could take the words back. Instead his mouth let worse words slip past. "I've got you."

Beth's gaze snapped up from the snow coating the roof to his instantly. Daryl ground his teeth together in an attempt to stop himself from saying anything else. Her eyes on him burned with an intensity that made him forget the cold winter air surrounding them and as she took a small tentative step towards him Daryl only partly wondered if it was his imagination or if the snow beneath her feet really was melting from the heat.

His feet were apparently as untrustworthy as his mouth because he found himself stepping forward to close the last bit of space between them. They were so close now that Beth had to lean her head back to look up at him as he rose his freezing hands to cup her face.

"Why'd you really bring me up here?" he whispered as she blushed and rose her hands to his arms.

"I didn't know how else to get you alone." And then, without truly knowing who moved first, they were kissing and Daryl didn't need to close his eyes for the taste of her to overwhelm the rest of his senses.


	8. Red

Bethyl Week Day 2: Red

Beth flinched in pain as Daryl tapped her shoulder and indicated the walker approaching them through the trees. She nodded to show that she saw it too and pulled the hunting knife out of its sheath. Shaking her head slightly she tried to ignore the insentient burning pain of her skin. It felt as though her entire body had just gone through a furnace.

Knife ready in hand Beth was just about to lunge forward and put the walker down when Daryl let a cross-bolt fly. It landed with a sickening thunk that still made her flinch. She sheathed the knife slowly, scanning the area around them to see if the walker had any friends within proximity.

Daryl walked ahead of her and pulled the arrow out without so much as a blink as it excited the corpse's head. Beth herself shivered at the sight.

He motioned for her to follow after her and she did silently which seemed to be how she did much of anything these days. As she walked she tried to adjust the straps of her shirt into a position that did not cause her to flinch in pain.

Daryl glanced back at her in irritation before he noticed her silent struggles.

"What's the hold up?" he grunted at her. Beth looked up at him in surprise at the interruption, that had to be the longest string of words he had said to her since they had passed through the prison gates. The shock of him taking the time to speak to her for the first time in what had to be a week caused her to answer honestly.

"Sunburn." she blushed at the fact that she was complaining about something so mundane after everything they had just seen happen to their family, their home. Beth shook her head as if she was trying to deny the word she had just said. "Its okay. I'm just a bit pink."

For a moment Daryl simply stared at her before he sighed and stepped back over a tree root to lean in close to her, peering down at the skin of her chest. "Pink?" Daryl snorted as he turned back around seeming to take a moment to catch his bearings. "Greene learn your colors. That is _red_."

Beth blushed deeper, the added heat to her face making her shift uncomfortably. "Its nothing. Really." she pushed past Daryl to keep them on their way to nowhere as they tried to find their friends on a trail long since cold. "We should keep going."

Daryl suddenly grabbed her arm, albeit in a much looser grip this time.

"This way." he said no more to her as he changed their direction, seemingly at will. Beth followed after him with a glum sigh not sure of how much longer she could take of the tension between them.

They walked in silence for what felt like hours, although Beth was not the best judge of time these days. Finally, just as she was opening her mouth to ask him where they were going they stumbled out of the treeline and onto the back lot of a small gas station. Daryl held his crossbow up and ready as Beth pulled her knife out as her muscles began to tense in anticipation.

There were only two walkers in the lot, both of whom were disposed of quickly. Beth eased the door, hanging only by one hinge, open slowly as Daryl waited outside of it with his bow. Nothing came out so he quickly went inside motioning for her to come in after him.

Beth ducked inside the dim and grimy interior, grimacing as she stepped onto a thick layer of trash and leaves that seemed to have blown in through the broken door. She headed immediately towards the small aisles to look for supplies, hopefully food, and listened as Daryl headed down the aisles quickly, the trash crumpling under his feet.

Managing to scrounge up a few things that still looked edible Beth nearly jumped in surprise when she straightened up and saw Daryl standing before her. A flash of momentary guilt passed over his face before he thrust out his arm and a small bottle full of blue gel at her.

"Might help." he shrugged before turning away to scan the other aisles.

Beth turned the bottle in her hands in surprise that quickly turned to gratitude at the familiar label of Aloe Vera. Quickly she placed her items on the empty shelf next to her and unscrewed the cap. The scent hit her nose, much more pungent than she remembered it, but as she began to smear it on her skin she did not care at all about the smell. The insistent burn of her skin seemed to ebb and, despite the sickening look of the gel mixing with the dirt on her body, she felt almost instantly better.

Daryl continued to scavenge the store as she all but bathed in the gel. She could not seem to reach the burning spot on her upper back but she kept twisting her arms behind her in determination.

A hand suddenly lay flat against her shoulder and Beth looked behind her to see Daryl reach forwards to grab the bottle from her hands. Swallowing hard Beth faced the front again as he lay his palm against her back and began to rub the gel into the spot she just could not reach. Her heart began to beat faster at the contact, of actual human contact, as it suddenly dawned on her exactly how close together they were.

Beth's mind began to toy with her then, showing her images of all the things that might happen if she were to turn around to face Daryl at that moment. If she were to be so bold as to press a kiss against his mouth. Her heart began to beat even faster at that and Beth wondered idly if he could hear it. She knew it was a foolish idea but it had been so long since she had had the comfort of another person's touch.

Just as she was seriously considering turning around a growling sound came from outside. Daryl shoved the open bottle into her hands before grabbing one of the bags of their new supplies. Beth grabbed the other and followed him quickly out of the back door knowing full well that her heart was not pounding like this out of fear.


	9. Numb

Bethy Week Day 3: Numb

Daryl tried to wiggle his fingers but found that while he could see them moving he could not feel them at all. They had long since gone numb from the pressure of the sleeping form over his arm. Raising his other, and thankfully still movable arm, Daryl brushed a strand of long blonde hair off of Beth's peaceful face. The look on her face was the reason he did not wake her up or move her off of his arm, despite the numbness of his fingers. He could not remember the last time he had seen her look so calm and Daryl could not bare the idea of being the one to drag her from it.

The sky around them began to lighten and Daryl knew that soon he was going to have to move her off of him anyway. As it was Abraham, who had replaced Daryl on watch, had already seen their compromising sleeping position. Well truthfully it wasn't that compromising. Beth was simply curled into his chest and using his arm as a pillow. But to Daryl it felt that they might as well make a neon sign to show the others that there was something going on between the two of them.

Or at least Daryl felt like there was.

He had realized that he had more than just friendship feelings for Beth Greene the day that they had holed up in the funeral home where he almost confessed those very same feelings to her. Before he had a chance she was taken from him. With her gone it was like his whole body had gone as numb as his hand was at this moment. He woke up every morning not remembering that she was gone, it was like a stab in the gut every time.

Upon being reunited with her the feeling returned to his body so painfully that he actually thought about crying, he only just managed to hold it together although he did have to tuck his face into her tangled hair for a moment to gain control of himself. Daryl was shocked to realize that his feelings for her seemed to have only grown stronger in her absence.

Beth was not in any position to be told about them of course. She refused to talk about the people who had taken her or what had happened other than the fact to say she had gotten away and they would not be coming after her again. Daryl did not have to guess at what she meant by that. The first few nights she had been with them he noticed that she never once closed her eyes to sleep. She just lay a foot from Maggie and stared off into the woods as though waiting for something to jump out at her.

It seemed as though his numbness had passed over to her.

One night Beth gave up on the act of being asleep and joined him on watch where they sat in a silence that felt much more companionable then when they had left the prison together. Daryl did not have the words to help her but Beth did not seem to need anything from him but his company. Soon after that at nights after Maggie fell asleep Beth would come and lay next to him, where he was relieved to notice that she was beginning to get some sleep. In the daylight she was becoming the same Beth as she used to be, only a bit tougher, a bit stronger than Daryl remembered. At night, however, the terrors she had lived through always seemed to make an appearance.

Daryl did not know when or how she started to curl her body against his when she slept but never once did her push her away. Every morning when he woke up she was already awake and usually trying to scrounge up some food for the rest of them .Daryl did not know if anyone but Abraham knew where Beth slept at night. So far he had not said anything about it, merely giving the two of them knowing looks at times.

Daryl heard stirring coming from behind him but he assumed it was just someone shifting in their sleep. Beth moved a little at the sound, curling her body closer into his and wrapping her arm around his waist. He sucked in a surprised breath at that. He was always the one who held Beth, she had never held him before.

He was so shocked by this change that he did not hear the footsteps approaching him until he heard Abraham cough loudly. Daryl looked up in surprise to see Maggie staring down at them with sleep clouded eyes.

Daryl felt the urge to push Beth off of him even though Maggie had already seen them. He also felt the urge to reassure her that it wasn't what it looked like but found he could not find the words.

He wanted for it to be what it looked liked.

As such Maggie and him simply stared at each other for a few seconds in silence until she whispered, "You're good for each other." before turning her back and walking away.

Daryl let out a sigh of relief as his head fell back down onto the dirt. Beth's arm clutched him tighter and Daryl welcomed the numbness of his fingers if it meant he got to hold her.


	10. Enchanted

Bethy Week Day Four: Enchanted

The soft sound of Beth singing filled Daryl's ears as he lay stretched out inside of the coffin. Her fingers played haunting melodies on the piano and he closed his eyes to submerge himself in the sound of her voice. She sang softly at first but slowly got louder as it became clear to her that he wanted her to keep singing.

Beth's enchanting voice slowly began to lull him to sleep and he felt peaceful for the first time in a very long while. The music suddenly drawled to a stop and Daryl slowly opened his eyes to look over at Beth who had turned around to watch him with curious eyes.

"What?" he grunted self consciously.

Beth blushed and ducked her head. "I thought you were asleep." she admitted before looking back up at him.

Daryl shook his head slowly as Beth stood up and peered at the coffin curiously.

"Is it actually comfortable?" she asked quietly as she inched a small step forward.

He nodded, his mouth suddenly dry as she approached him tortuously slowly. After what felt like minutes but was likely only seconds Beth stood next to the coffin, raising her hands to rest them on the side of the wooden box.

"Can I join you?" she whispered, her voice betraying her nerves by its slight tremble.

Daryl's own voice seemed to be refusing to work so he simply turned on his side to allow her some room beside him. She climbed in carefully and stretched herself out next to him, their bodies pressing together in places due to the cramped quarters. Daryl felt his heart speed up at her proximity and idly he wondered if she could feel it or if the pounding of her own heart was drowning him out.

For a moment neither of them said anything, they simply lay and stared into each other's eyes. Daryl could feel something change between them in that moment. He felt the sudden need to kiss her and slowly he rose his hand to cup her face. Beth's eyes fluttered shut and she did not move away from him, instead inching a smidgen closer.

Daryl moved forward, his lips only a breath away from hers when suddenly her stomach let out a loud rumble.

Beth let out a startled giggle and Daryl pulled back away from her, the moment suddenly broken. She grinned at him, looking slightly embarrassed.

Daryl simply sat up and offered her a hand to help her down from the coffin.

"Let's get you some food Greene." He said, only slightly put out by the interruption. Reminding himself that they would have plenty of time later to continue this interaction Daryl helped lead Beth out of the room.


	11. Dream

Bethyl Week Day 5: Dream

A shrill giggle pierced through Beth's ears and her eyes opened with a jolt. Blinking the sleep from her eyes she pushed up off the couch she was laying on to look around the room for the source of the sound. She did not have to look very far for stretched out on the floor before her lay her husband who was currently tickling the feet of their giggling daughter.

A smile bloomed across Beth's face as she pulled a pillow onto her lap and quietly watched as Daryl dropped all of his tough persona and made silly faces at their baby girl. She loved when she got the chance to see him like this, his walls all but forgotten when it was only the three of them. It had always been like that though, ever since they first met that fateful day she took her car into his shop. He always told her that she was the only person he had never felt the need to hide himself from.

Daryl looked up at her then, grinning when he saw that she was watching them.

"Look whose awake Hope." he whispered as he eased their four month old child off of her play mat and turned her in his arms to face Beth. "Mommy's up from her nap."

Beth smiled wider and put the pillow back on the couch before sliding down onto the floor across from them. "Hey sweetie." she whispered as Daryl passed their child over to her. Beth tucked her head next to her daughter's to press a soft kiss against her cheek. She inhaled the sweet smell of baby powder as she looked over at Daryl. "Thank you for letting me sleep."

He shrugged nonchalantly in response. "You deserved it after being up all night with this one." he scooted closer and brushed down a poofy blonde curl on their daughter's head..

"Your sister called." he informed her as he leaned against the couch next to her, draping an arm over her shoulder. "Wanted to make sure we could pick up the cake for your dad's surprise party tomorrow."

Beth blinked and ran her hands over her eyes to clear the sleep from her mind. "His birthday is already tomorrow?" she asked in surprise. Ever since they had Hope it seemed as though the days simply got away from her.

Daryl smiled and brushed some strands of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail away from her face. "It is." he said as he pressed a light kiss against her temple.

"Is Merle coming?" Beth asked curiously as she rested her head against his shoulder. She felt Daryl nod and she shook her head, still surprised by how well his brass older brother got along with her father.

"Supposed to be quite a turn out." Daryl whispered as Hope closed her eyes and snuggled deeper into Beth's arms.

"Well its not everyday you turn seventy." Beth returned with a smile at the thought of her father.

"No its not." Daryl agreed as he leaned over to kiss her. His lips were mere milliliters from hers when a metallic rattling filled her ears.

Beth Greene suddenly sprung awake, her knife gripped tight in her hand as she looked up in time to see a startled rabbit darting away from the metal cans it had accidentally shaken. She took in a deep breath that stirred the dirt that she was laying on.

Her heart beating fast Beth sat up and looked around her empty campsite as an intense wave of sadness washed over her.

It had all just been a dream.


	12. Hope

Bethyl Week Day 7: Hope

Beth stumbled over a broken tree root managing to just catch herself on the tree before she tumbled down onto the ground. She rested her face against the rough bark of the trunk as she took a deep breath, trying to encourage herself to keep moving. She needed to put as much distance between herself and the people who had taken her as possible. Beth had not heard them following her for quite some time, nor had she heard anything else in the woods but a few walkers, but she did not let that fact slow her down. Beth felt like they could be anywhere, that every tree she passed was hiding one of them and at any moment they would jump out at her and yell 'boo!'.

Wincing as she put weight on her still not fully healed ankle Beth pushed off of the tree and forced herself to continue on her way. She ignored the hollow pit in her stomach and the dryness of her mouth choosing to focus only on getting away from her captors and whatever plan they had for her.

And so the days passed in much the same way.

She managed to kill a walker with a rock and steal the knife they had hooked onto their belt which took care of her most prominent need, that of a weapon. With the knife she managed to hunt and kill a snake in the way that Daryl had taught her. The memory of him brought a surge of hope through her and she promised both herself and him that they would see each other again. Beth did not allow herself to think for a second that he had died in that funeral home. If Daryl was tough enough to pull an arrow out of his own side than he was more than tough enough to get past those walkers.

Beth managed to track down water eventually as well and with her basic needs met she was able to make better time through the woods. Eventually she allowed herself to believe that her captors were no longer following her, that they had given up on her as dead or at least decided to try and find someone easier to attack. Her heart went out to whatever poor girl they tried to take and she found herself hoping that walkers got to the men before that happened.

Her days began to blend together in frightening monotony. Wake up. Check weapon. Start walking. Eat a little of whatever food she could find. Drink water if she could find it. Wish for a shower. Keep walking. Eventually find a safe place to sleep, Beth had taken to climbing trees and sleeping in them. It was easier to fall asleep up there than convincing herself she was safe on the ground. She longed for the days when she had someone else to split the watch with at night.

The days dragged on and Beth wandered farther and farther into the woods with no direction in mind. Her thoughts were consumed with the idea of finding her family and she held onto that hope like it was the only thing she had left, which in a way she supposed that it was.

Despite the time that had passed and the fact that she had no idea where to look for the others Beth went to sleep every night promising herself that the next day would be the day that she found them.

Beth never let herself hope that they would find her.

Which is why when she was awoken from her sleep early one morning by the sound of voices passing underneath her tree she almost did not look down to see who it was. Beth had forced herself not to move a muscle despite the fact that her entire body was telling herself to run. She lay on her branch about half way up the tree with her heart hammering so loudly in her chest she was sure that the people below her could hear it. Beth would have stayed in that tree and let them all pass by her if the sound of a familiar cry had not pierced through the air at that moment.

She had sat up immediately at the sound of a baby's cry, luckily the sound of her movements blocked out by the people below her frantically hushing the child. Beth stared down in shock at the group huddled right beneath her tree sure that she was still dreaming. There was no way that her entire living family was simply huddled beneath her.

As her eyes scanned the group desperately and caught familiar face after familiar face she realize that it was real, she was not dreaming. Beth's eyes fell on Maggie and the stillness that had flooded her upon hearing Judith left her with a startled gasp. No longer caring about the noise she made Beth began to make her way quickly down the tree. She heard the sounds of her friends moving, no doubt pointing their guns at her as she all but fell the last few feet to the ground.

Beth did not bother to look at anyone else as she straightened and stumbled the remaining distance into Maggie's arms. Her sister froze upon contact with her before she slowly grabbed her arms and pushed her back far enough to stare into her face.

Maggie's eyes went wide at the sight before she whispered her name softly and then they were hugging so tightly Beth felt like she could barely breath. When they finally let go Beth turned to face the rest of the people surrounding her, her eyes immediately landing on one face. She felt her smile widen as she walked forward to meet the person pushing past the others to her.

Daryl held her even tighter than Maggie had, lifting her a few inches off the ground as he held her in his arms.

She felt rather than heard him draw in a shaky breath and Beth smiled against his shoulder as she turned her head to whisper in his ear.

"I told you to have faith."


	13. Baby Bump

When she first started to show Beth had been annoyed for the sole reason that the one pair of pants she owned were slowly beginning to get to tight at the waist. She had complained about it as she stood to show Daryl what she meant, turning so that he could see the waist of her jeans slowly beginning to press into her skin. Daryl hadn't really heard any of what she was saying, he found that he was unable to tear his eyes away from the small round bump in her stomach.

They had know she was pregnant for over three months now but it was not until that day that the fact truly began to sink in. It was not until Daryl saw the proof beneath her skin that he finally truly realized that there was a child forming inside of her, their child.

He had risen off of the bed and crossed the room to her, placing his hands flat against the bare skin of her stomach. Beth had stopped her complaints mid sentence to stare at him as he kneeled down before her and placed his lips softly against her stomach, as if the child inside of her would be able to feel it. He found himself desperate for their child to know that he was still there to, that they would come into this world and have two parents who loved them unconditionally. As Daryl pulled away and looked up at Beth he made a promise right there that he would never be anything like his father.

From that moment on Daryl could not get enough.

When Beth sat next to him he would often reach over to run his fingers over her slowly growing belly, as if he was reassuring their child that he was still there. At night he would kiss her stomach before he kissed her. She never questioned his need of touching her stomach, he had noticed that her own hands often drifted to rest against the place where their child grew, and her complaints of her stomach growing had stopped.

Daryl would often bend down to whisper things against her stomach, never anything important but he felt that he wanted their child to come into the world already knowing the sound of his voice. Beth never asked him what he was whispering or teased him for his actions, which only added to the many things he already loved about her. As time passed and her belly grew Daryl began to grow reassured that together they would be able to raise this child.

At night she would sit and sing lullabies as Daryl's fingers trailed small circles against her skin, as though they were rehearsing how they would act as a family.


	14. Chapter 15

Her breathing was slow and shallow as she curled on her side next to him. Her head rested on his shoulder as he wound his fingers around stray pieces of her hair. A small part of him was jealous of her ability to sleep no matter where they were or how she was feeling. The rest of him was just glad that was able to get any sleep right now, he knew that she needed every minute she could get.

The roundness of her belly pressed against his side and every now and then he could feel slight movement from it as their child kicked and squirmed inside of her. Feeling those movements made him marvel at the fact that they really were having a child while also filling him with an almost crippling fear.

His arm tightened around her as his nightly fears took up residence in his mind. They didn't have a doctor with them, he didn't know how to raise a baby let alone deliver one, and the most important fear- Lori.

Her face haunted him at all times, both waking and asleep. It wasn't that bad in this first months of Beth's pregnancy but as time passed and she started to show he started to hear Lori's voice in his ear, accusing him of killing Beth. She kept telling him that this baby was going to kill Beth, just like Judith killed her.

He tried to block it all out but as time passed and Beth's stomach grew larger it only got harder. Now, with only a few weeks left, Daryl constantly felt a paralyzingly fear that his visions of Lori were right.

He must have made some noise of distress because he felt Beth squirm against his shoulder. He looked down and saw her blue eyes flutter open sleepily.

"Daryl?" she whispered as she looked up at him. He grunted in response, keeping his fears to himself as he always did. "Have you slept at all?" she asked, her voice groggy.

Daryl hesitated a moment before shaking his head. Beth sighed and wrapped her arm around his waist.

"You need to sleep." she told him as she buried her face into his chest, still mostly asleep herself. Daryl tried to close his eyes but the moment he did he saw visions of Beth dying as she tried to give birth to his child.

"Stop fretting." she mumbled as she clutched him tighter, surely able to hear his racing heart. "It'll be okay. Have a little faith."

Her breathing steadied out as she slipped back into slumber and Daryl ran his hand lightly over her back. Faith. He could do that, for her.


	15. Chapter 16

"We need to tell them." she whispered frantically as she chewed on her nails. Daryl nodded with a sigh of acceptance, he had always known they wouldn't be a secret forever but he still didn't want to have this conversation. Beth and him exchanged a meaningful look before he kissed he on the forehead and opened the door.

Daryl cleared his throat nervously as he and Beth entered the room where the rest of their group was beginning to scope out spots to sleep for the night. Even though it had already been weeks since they had escaped from Terminus and been reunited with the other prison survivors Daryl still felt a twinge of astonishment every time he looked at someone. For so long he had been sure that Beth and him were the only survivors that he just could not get over how wrong he had been.

Beth gripped his shirt sleeve to get him to stop in the doorway. He looked down at her nervously before she reached down and slipped her hand into his with a smile.

"Hey guys." she called out, soft enough to not draw attention of anything outside the house but loud enough that everyone in the room turned their heads to look at her. She still hadn't let go of his hand and he saw Maggie's eyebrows go up at the sight. "Daryl and I have something we need to tell you." her voice was much stronger than his would have been if he had been the one to speak. He squeezed her hand in encouragement. Public speaking was never his strong suit.

"Wait." Glenn said, interrupting her by holding up a hand. "Are you two together?" he asked no emotion in his voice as he flicked his hands in a strange motion that Daryl figured was supposed to mean together.

"Yes but." Beth was cut off before she could finish telling them their news as the room had erupted into quiet cheers and exclamations of 'finally!"

"Three days Daryl. You couldn't have held on to this for three more days?" Carl asked, shaking his head mournfully as he dug through his bag before tossing Michonne a candy bar. She caught it gleefully before tipping it towards him and Beth in a cheers gesture.

"Wait you all knew?" Beth asked before looking up at Daryl with a confused smile.

"You're kind of obvious." Tara said with a snort. Daryl looked away awkwardly at that admission, seeing Beth blush for the corner of his eye.

"I'm happy for you Beth." Maggie spoke softly as she smiled at her sister. "For both of you." Daryl nodded in her direction before he looked at Beth again with a shrug.

"Well thanks you guys but um." she paused and fidgeted with her shirt hem for a second. "That's not all we needed to tell you."

The room fell silent in confusion and Daryl suddenly found himself longing for his crossbow or the old riot gear that Eugene wore.

"Daryl and I are goingtohaveababy." Beth admitted in a rush as she clutched his hand like a lifeline. He returned the pressure as he saw Rick put his head in his hands and Glenn wince.

The room sat in stunned silence until Maggie slowly stood up. "I am going to kill you Dixon."


	16. Oh

Daryl grunted as the boy's blow graced his cheek. The sound was more out of surprise than actual pain, he had dealt with much worse wounds than the tap the boy before him had just produced. Still the act of it only caused the rage inside of him to flare and he swung his crossbow up to fix the scrub clad boy in his sights. His finger was about to pull the trigger when a voice, _her_ voice, cut through the air.

"Daryl stop!" the fear in it was enough to make him hesitate. Daryl had assumed the boy before him was one of the people responsible for taking Beth from him. To bringing her here to this decrepit hospital and forcing her to remain within its walls. Of course he hadn't really had any time to ask Beth about what had happened to her. They arrived in time to see her and an assortment of other people fleeing the walls, a slew of walkers following after them.

Daryl had naturally assumed that everyone else there was the enemy.

But here she was, rushing up to stand in front of the boy who was staring at him with pure fear in his dark brown eyes. It was not lost on Daryl how young the boy was, or how attractive. Despite what people thought he was a smart man and he could put two and two together. He pulled his bow up and turned from them so that Beth would not see the pain on his face.

She could go off with her new boyfriend then.

He should have known everything between them was just in his head.

They left Atlanta as soon as they could, lifting an ambulance from the hospital parking lot. It was a cramped fit inside of the back, even after they pushed the gurney out onto the street. To Daryl's extreme displeasure the boy Beth had prevented him from killing, her new boyfriend Aiden, came with them.

He sat awkwardly as close to the doors as he could get without leaning on them and kept casting furtive looks at all of them. Daryl made certain that he saw the knife resting on his hip.

He was a bit surprise when Beth chose to sit in between him and Maggie instead of by her boyfriend but he supposed that sister trumped lover every time. Beth tried several times to engage him a conversation but he merely shrugged or grunted in response. She did not need to know about the hollow mess he had become in her absence.

By the time they slowed to a stop for the night Daryl could clearly see the shimmering rage Beth was barely able to control. He fled from the ambulance as quick as he could saying he was going to see if he could hunt anything down.

He hadn't gone four feet from the truck when there was a clattering behind him and he turned to see Beth rushing after him, no weapons in her hand.

She rose her eyebrow at him in defiance "I'm coming with you."

Daryl shook his head as he cast a look back at the ambulance. Aiden was staring nervously at the others not even paying Beth and him any mind. "You're not armed." Daryl insisted as he turned from her to head into the woods.

Her hand on his hip stopped him and his whole body tensed until he realized she was simply lifting his hunting knife off of him. Beth held the blade up and glowered at him to which Daryl simply shook his head before leading the way into the trees. She could do what she damn well pleased then.

They walked in silence quite some time until Daryl had the good luck to nag a squirrel, even animals were getting scarce these days. He had just removed the bolt from its body and strung it to his belt when Beth spoke.

"Are you mad at me?" her voice sounded strange, almost frightened, and Daryl turned to her in surprise. He had not known Beth to be scared of impossible things before.

Daryl wasn't mad, not at her. He was furious with himself for ever thinking that there was something other than friendship going on between them. For having the gall to assume that someone like Beth Greene could love someone like him.

He ignored her question as he pushed past her. "Let's head back. Your boyfriend's probably worried."

She let out a sound that was half laugh and half huff of exasperation "Boyfriend? You mean _Aiden?"_

Daryl turned back to look at her as some of his anger leaked to the surface. "Course I mean Aiden! Unless you got another boyfriend I don't know about!"

Beth looked up at him with her wide blue eyes as she shook her head in denial. "He was a captive too, we were on the same floor. He's not my boyfriend."

Daryl half stumbled in surprise. He opened his mouth as he thought of what to say, did he apologize? Did he just shrug it off? But Beth was peering up at him as a look of recognition suddenly passed over her face and their eyes were locked in an intense gaze as one word slipped breathlessly past her lips.

"Oh."

Daryl had never hated a word as much as he hated that one. That's what she had said last time he had almost confessed his feelings to her and now she was saying it again. He didn't need to hear anything else. Daryl forcefully tore his eyes off of her and turned to head back towards the camp. He hadn't taken a full step before her hand was on his arm again.

With more strength than he had known she possessed Beth turned him to face her. She stood still for a moment, simply looking up at him, before she rose slowly onto her toes and pressed a soft kiss against his cheek.

She pulled away and they both stood in silence for a moment looking at each other and Daryl felt in that moment that there were no walls or secrets between them. As he stared down into her eyes Daryl was astounded that he could see a reflection of his own feelings in them.

Daryl swallowed hard at the sight, at the intensity of her gaze on him. He had been wrong this whole time, the word didn't mean rejection it only meant surprise. It slipped past his lips then on its own accord, "Oh."


	17. Chapter 18

"I'm sorry!" she cried the words at him and Daryl could have sworn that they felt sharper than any knife or arrow he had ever encountered. The pain in her voice was not lost on him but it was not enough to prevent him from wheeling around on her, eyes narrowed in disgust to mask his pain as he glared at her.

"You're sorry?! You sure as shit weren't sorry when you were spreading your legs for that douchebag!" His arm flung out as if to express the width of his anger but as close as they were standing he only narrowly avoided hitting her. They were right in each others faces now, their skin flushed as they screamed at each other. It seemed as though they were trying to see who could yell louder, as if that would prove to them who was more hurt. She kept trying to make him understand and he kept trying to inflict as much pain on her as she had just given him.

"I thought you were dead!" Beth screamed, her voice holding as much pain as he seemed to be full of at the moment. That was impossible though because there was no way this was hurting her more than him.

"And that's a reason to go screw that asshole?! How long did it take you to jump in his bed?" his voice broke on the last word and Daryl turned away from her then so that he could fight down the tears threatening to over come him. He just could not believe this was happening.

He struggled to hold onto his anger, anger was the only thing that would hold this pain at bay, but Daryl didn't know how much longer he could be in her company without breaking apart. He should have known they wouldn't have lasted. Beth was to good for him, would always be to good for him. The fact that she would ever cheat on anybody she claimed to love was only a testament to how much being with him had tainted her.

A tentative hand touched his elbow but Daryl wrenched his arm free of her grasp as he stumbled forward. His breath came in pants as he moved away, knowing that if she touched him he would only taint her more.

"I'm so sorry Daryl." Beth did not bother to try and hide the pain in her voice and Daryl did not need to turn around to know her face was shining with tears. "You'd been gone for nearly ten days. When Tyresse came back and said you got separated in a herd I just thought-" her voice broke off with a wet gasp and Daryl tried to get angry again.

If she kept talking like this he would forgive her and if he forgave her he would surely ruin her. Something so pure could never last with something so rotten. Beth kept talking trying so hard to help ease his pain she didn't even realize that it was him, him and his dirty Dixon genes, that had caused this whole mess.

"I was terrified and lonely and I don't know." She sniffled behind him and it took all of Daryl's willpower not to turn around. If he saw her now that was all it would take. He would forgive her and they would be right back where they started with him tainting her darker every second. "I'm so sorry."

Her hand was on his arm again and when he didn't shake it off(he wanted to, oh how he wanted to, but her touch was so soft it weakened even his stone hard interior) she crept forward slowly until her forehead was resting between his shoulder blades and her arms were snaked around his waist. As closely as she was pressed against his back Daryl could feel the small sobs running through her and he rose his hand to touch hers, twining their fingers together.

Daryl closed his eyes so he did not have to see their hands together. He had always thought he was the strong Dixon, the only one in his whole family never to succumb to addiction.

But as Beth wrapped her arms tighter around him, feeling as though she was the only thing holding him together, Daryl realized he was no different than his lowlife family. Because even though he knew every second they spent together only tainted her more Daryl would never be able to let Beth Greene go.

She had clawed her way into his bloodstream, heightened all of his senses, and no matter what happened he was not going to let that slip away. Because no matter what she had done or how much he tainted her she was still the only good thing that had ever happened to him.

As far as Daryl was concerned, they could destroy each other and he would never regret it for a moment.


	18. First Date

Beth had thought that the slight quiver she heard in his voice when he asked her to follow him was just in her imagination. None of the others seemed to notice anything off about him and as Beth rose from her chair to let him lead her around the scattered furniture in the room no one even so much as looked at them. The interior of the house was dim but Beth did not have to try very hard to dodge the obstacles in her way. After so long of living in the wilderness moving in near darkness had become a second nature for her.

Daryl led her to the steep set of stairs that led up to the small attic above the house the people in this so called 'Safe Zone' had lent for them for the night. In the morning they would be allowed to expand to other houses but for their first night the people in charge wanted them all to be in one place so they could keep a better eye on them. Beth didn't know who was less trusting, them or the people here.

She didn't really care if they were trusted at first or not. If this turned out to be as safe as they were promising than they would be able to have actual lives here. Beth felt Daryl's hand lightly brush her lower back as he led her up the stairs and she certain it was just the chill in the air that caused his fingers to slightly tremble. However she suddenly felt the need to fill the silence between them which was strange as they usually felt so comfortable around each other, no matter how still it was. Something seemed off about Daryl tonight though so she shot a quick look over her shoulder at him as she spoke.

"Its a bit exciting isn't it? Having the chance to pick out actual houses? I think I'm going to ask Maggie if I can live with her and Glenn. I just don't want to be alone." Beth turned as she reached the top of the stairs and her eyes widened in surprise. The drab little room was empty except for the center of it where a worn blanket was spread across the weathered floor. There were two cans of food resting on it and a few candles at the edges of the room provided them with a soft flickering light.

Beth found she didn't quite know what to say, Daryl had asked her to join him for dinner but she had thought that was his way of asking her to sneak out of the camp and go hunting. She hadn't been expecting this.

"This look lovely." she smiled over at him but Daryl merely cleared his throat awkwardly before pressing his hand on her lower back again and leading her towards the blanket. His hand still seemed to be trembling which Beth found to be a little strange as it was much warmer up here than downstairs.

Daryl held onto her arm as she eased down onto the blanket which Beth found to be endearingly cute. He waited until it was clear she was comfortable before sitting down across from her. Beth let herself entertain the wild thought of Daryl pulling out a chair for her to sit down in, at a white clothed table with flowers in the middle.

She shook her hand to clear her mind of such fantastical ideas as she accepted the tin can of food Daryl passed her. Their fingers brushed and Beth wondered if perhaps it was a bit too warm up here. Even in the dim light of the candles she could see that Daryl was flushed.

"Who do you think you'll live with?" Beth asked before taking a bite of her food. She smiled as the taste of peaches bloomed across her tongue. They were her favorite but they always seemed to be so increasingly hard to come by. She always tried to share the sweet fruit with everyone else so she tipped her can towards Daryl but he shook his head. "Are you going to live alone?"

Daryl swallowed a bite of his own food, which didn't look nearly as appetizing as her peaches, before answering. "Probably live with Rick."

Beth nodded as they ate in silence. Of course he would want to live with Rick, they were as close as brothers. Besides no one would want to live alone, not in this world. A half formed image of Daryl living with her flickered across her mind but Beth shook it off. She could indulge in such fantasies later.

She knew that one day they would no longer be fantasies. Daryl and her had been testing the waters of their relationship since they had been reunited three weeks ago. They had made substantial progress but they were still far from where Beth wanted them to be. She had always been a patient person though so she was willing to wait. Besides it was clear to her, and really everyone, that whatever her and Daryl were they were not just friends. If he needed a little bit of extra time to come to terms with everything than she was willing to wait.

The silence they were sitting in still seemed different than usual. Daryl also seemed to be very uncomfortable, it appeared he was having a problem looking at her for very long. He also couldn't keep still which was a surprising change in a man she had once seen not move so much as a finger for three hours straight.

"Are you feeling okay?" Beth finally asked once both of them were done with their food and Daryl had still yet to allude as to why he had wanted to eat alone with her that night. He still looked flushed and Beth was just beginning to wonder if she should force him to let Bob have a look at him when Daryl shrugged.

"Just never done this before." he admitted in a rough whisper before clearing his throat and looking away from her.

Beth shook her head at him, setting her can down on the blanket as she wondered if a fever was what was causing him not to make any sense. "Done what before Daryl?" she asked softly trying to come up with a plausible reason to feel his forehead.

Daryl's eyes suddenly locked onto hers and she was taken aback by how clear his blue eyes were. He certainly didn't _look_ like a man who was sick.

"Youknow." he mumbled, practically incoherent as they stared at each other.

Beth shook her head in confusion but his gaze on her seemed to darken and a sudden realization overcame her.

Candlelight, dinner alone, her favorite food, _a picnic blanket._

_"_Oh." she whispered. "This is a date." She whispered it more out of reverent shock than for actual clarification.

Daryl heard her though because his brow crinkled as he grunted. "Course its a date Greene. You didn't know that?"

Beth smiled as she looked across the blanket at him. Daryl suddenly looked uncomfortable again and he had the look on his face that usually meant he was thinking things over. She practically saw the moment he realized he had never actually clarified why he wanted to have dinner with her and she felt her smile stretch as he blushed.

It seemed that the quiver in his voice hadn't been her imagination after all.


	19. Proposal

The gray light of dawn should have caused Beth's features to blur together, to become bland and muted into the background like it did with most everything else but it didn't. Even before the first rays of the sun hit the horizon Daryl knew that they could shine nonstop for days and still never come close to being as bright as her.

As if she could feel his eyes on her(but really these days when weren't they?) Beth turned to give him a small smile before signing him their signal for heading back to camp. They had already caught three squirrels, a large catch these days, and it had been hours since any game had crossed their paths.

Still Daryl found himself shaking his head, his fingers taunt on his crossbow as he tried to muster up his courage to ask her the question that had been dancing through his mind for weeks.

Of course he had been trying for the last week to actually ask her so he didn't know why this morning would be any different. His ears were tuned in to every sound around them; waiting for the growl of a walker, an animal crashing through the underbrush, or one of their companions voices to interrupt them as had become custom during these rare moments of quiet with just the two of them. But as Beth closed the small distance between them the only sound he could hear was the soft sound of her footfalls.

One of his hands dropped from his bow to slip into his pocket where a small golden band rested. He had been carrying this ring for six days, ever since Abraham had caught him lifting it off of the dresser of the house they were scouting. The two of them had their differences and the man never knew when to shut his damn mouth but that time it seemed that he did. He hadn't breathed a word of it to anyone as far as Daryl could tell but he had noticed the older man looking at Beth's finger with an increasing look of exasperation.

Daryl didn't care, as long as he didn't say anything about it he could be as exasperated as he damn well pleased.

Beth stopped in front of him and the first rays of sunshine crossed over the horizon adding a orange glow to the trees behind her. "Are you okay?" she whispered, her small hand cupping his chin as he nodded erratically.

_Just do it already._ Daryl's mind yelled at him before calling himself some names in a voice that sounded more like Merle's than his own. He swallowed his fear and forced himself to remember that this was Beth. This was the best thing in his life and he needed to take this chance to tell her that before something decided to screw it up again.

He dropped to his knee before he could let himself think it over any more. Beth let out a gasp of surprise, more at his sudden movement than his position on the ground he assumed. Daryl struggled to pull the ring from his pocket before he spared one last look around them for any dangers.

Now that the moment was actually happening he wasn't going to let any damn thing interrupt them.

He reached for her hand and she gave it to him with a smile as he held the ring up for her to see. Beth barely glanced at, her eyes glued to his in wonder.

Daryl had never been the best with words and he found that every speech he had struggled to write for this moment had suddenly fled his brain. But Beth was looking down at him so expectantly that he simply let himself say the first thing that popped into his brain.

"I love you." Daryl mentally chided himself, he needed to give her more than that. She already knew that. "You give me hope." he swallowed hard as he thought of what to say. Beth was looking down at him with her wide blue eyes and while he knew she would never expect some eloquent proposal from him that was what he wanted to give her. "You make me a better man. Make me want to _be_ a better man."

The words would have once made Daryl feel stupid for admitting out loud but in that moment all he felt was her hand in his. She was still smiling which Daryl took to be a good sign but his knees were growing stiff and he didn't know what he was supposed to do in this situation. He found himself desperately wishing he had asked Rick for suggestions when the next phrase rushed out of his mouth.

"This world may be shit but together we can make our lives it into something worth living."

He hadn't thought her smile could widen but it did and Daryl found that the small fear he had had about her saying no was fleeing. Part of him wanted to say something else but the dampness of the ground was soaking into his pants and Daryl knew that this gift of a calm moment wasn't going to last forever so he rushed the last part of it out in nearly one breath.

_"MarrymeBeth."_

And then she was nodding, three little letters passing through her lips. "Yes."

As Daryl slid the ring up her finger he didn't think any word had ever sounded so sweet.


	20. Whispers

"They're not going to make it that big of a deal." Beth whispered as she cast furtive looks at their companions huddled around their campfire. Daryl and her stood at the very edge of the ring of light, trying to make it seem as though their whispered conversation was normal. Beth wished it was early morning so that they could use their common hunting excuse as a way to get some privacy. She didn't even mind the actual hunting if it meant she got a few minutes alone with Daryl, her well, whatever they were.

"Now we're not a big deal?" Daryl asked, his blue eyes narrowing as he looked down at her.

Beth's own eyes rolled at the defensive look on his face "You know that's not what I meant. Its just in the grand scheme of things us being a couple isn't really something for them to get worked up about."

Daryl sighed and ran his hand over his face tiredly. Only the fact that the others were so close and yet to be informed about their relationship stopped Beth from reaching out to hold his other hand. "You're right." he grunted causing a small smile to cross Beth's face. He let out a deep sigh as he shot a look at the others who were trying to soak up a last bit of warmth before they put out the fire. Beth was glad they were telling the group about themselves tonight. They had been unable to find any shelter and it was only going to get colder as the night wore on. Now no one would question them when she curled up next to Daryl.

He placed his hand on her lower back and even through her layers the feel of it made her shiver as he led her towards the fire. Maggie glanced up at them with a familiar knowing look as they approached but no one else even moved.

Daryl cleared his throat awkwardly and slowly their friends looked over at them, their gazes questioning as Beth looked nervously up at Daryl. He was blushing, uncomfortable with being the center of attention, so Beth reached down to grab his hand.

As their fingers intertwined his spine seemed to straighten as he grunted. "So we're..."he paused as he struggled to find the right word, but apparently coming up short he just lifted the hand that Beth was holding.

She looked away from Daryl to watch the others, surprised when she realized no one actually looked surprised.

"Okay." Carl said with a shrug before he went back to the comic he was trying to read.

Beth felt a twinge of shock at everyone's calm reactions and a quick look at Daryl told her he felt the same way.

"We're happy for you." Rick said, as a grin spread across his face. "But you didn't really think we didn't know did you?"

Before they could even come up with something to say to that, which of course they didn't think anyone else knew. They had been trying very hard to keep it a secret until they knew if they were going to last. Beth tried to ignore the fact that many members of their group were chuckling as she wondered, how long had everyone known?

Maggie was shaking her head now as she smiled at them. "Y'all were really obvious, and neither of you can whisper worth a damn."

Beth blushed as Daryl shifted uncomfortably on his feet. They shared a look and Beth knew he was wondering as much as she was exactly what people had over heard.

She shrugged with a grin as she pulled Daryl down with her to complete the ring around the fire. It appeared they had been worrying for nothing. "Told you it wouldn't be that big of a deal."

Daryl sat down beside her and as she leaned against his chest he bent his head to her ear to whisper. "We need to work on this."

Glenn laughed as he wrapped his arm around Maggie's shoulders. "Still heard that."


	21. Chapter 22

for a prompt by Tumblr user sammxhill:

"I don't understand why you have to go!" Beth cried in a whisper, as desperate as he was not to wake up their son.

Hershel had only just now fallen asleep and Daryl honestly couldn't remember the last time he had done that. The medic here in Alexandria said their baby was completely healthy but Daryl had never known one baby could cry so much.

"We all got jobs to do right? That's what you always say." Daryl whispered back as he grabbed the newest quiver of arrows he had made and slung it over his back.

"Don't use my words as an excuse to keep leaving us!" Beth crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. The effect was dampened by her wildly frizzed hair and the fact that it looked like she hadn't slept in 36 hours but it was still pretty intimidating.

"I gotta go Beth." Daryl said with a shrug as he grabbed his crossbow, focusing on it so that he wouldn't have to look at her.

Beth seemed ready to stamp her foot in anger. "No! No you don't!" in her anger she forgot to keep her voice down and Daryl made frantic gestures for her to be quiet as Hershel began to fuss in his crib. "You want to go! You'd use any excuse to leave us!"

Hershel let out a cry as the sound of his mother's voice woke him. Daryl sighed and made to put his bow down and grab their son but Beth got there first. She scooped their baby boy up in her arms and turned to glare at him again.

Daryl fought for the words to explain it, how even after three months he was still scared to be a father(of becoming his father), but he could see Beth wasn't in the mood to hear anything.

"I'll be back tonight." he said calmly, trying to make her feel better but Beth only snorted and shook her head.

"And then you'll leave tomorrow." she turned her head away from him and began to blink rapidly and Daryl took a step forward to hold her, to touch her, to do _something. _Hershel made a small noise then and Daryl looked down at his son and very nearly stumbled when he saw the look in his small blue eyes.

Daryl had never thought babies could foster such an expression but there, shining out of his son's eyes, was a look he was all to familiar with. It was a look of disgust and hatred. It was the look Daryl had only ever used for his own father and seeing it in his son's eyes felt like a punch to the gut.

He tripped, catching himself on the back of the couch as his family glared at him. He had been trying so hard not to become his father, had doing that made it happen anyway? Was leaving them so often, even if it was for the good of the group, just the same as how often his father had left his mother? If he kept leaving now, would it just start everything else?

"Well?" Beth finally asked, breaking the silent tension (and his inner monologue) in the room. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Daryl shook his head as he approached his family. Maybe staying wouldn't stop him from becoming his father but it would be a start. He owed it to them to at least try. He pulled them into his arms, with the gentlest touch he could manage. Beth tensed under his touch at first but she relaxed as Daryl whispered.

"They can find someone else to go." he pulled back so that he could look down at them. "I can't keep leaving you two."

Beth smiled softly and Daryl looked down in her arms to see his son. The look in his eyes now was one Daryl had never given his own father and he felt his chest unclench a bit at the sight. Maybe he could do this after all.


	22. Birthday Cake

for a Tumblr prompt by deseraysmiththings

"Eggs Maggie. I need eggs!" Beth cried as she fluttered her flour coated hands in the air, wooden spoon coming dangerously close to hitting her face. Her sister looked around the kitchen with a look of unbridled horror as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, clearly not sure if she was dreaming or not. Beth didn't blame her, if she had woken at sunrise to see her sister standing in a powder white kitchen (the first flour bag she opened had exploded) with batter in her hair and screaming for eggs, it would have taken her a moment to process everything as well.

But Maggie seemed to take it in stride because after a moment she merely shrugged and grabbed her jacket off the hook on the other side of the wall. "I'll go next door and ask Daryl. He should be up this early."

"NO!" Beth cried, dropping the wooden spoon she was clutching with a clatter as she lunged towards her sister. "He can't know about this! Go ask Carol."

Her sister's brow crinkled as she looked around the disaster of a room. "What's this about?" she finally asked, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that made it very apparent she wasn't going to find Beth eggs until she explained herself.

Beth let out a sigh, shuffling her bare feet in the flour coating the floor. Parts of it were sticky where she had spilled oil and there were small white clumps stuck to her bare calves.

"Its Daryl's birthday." she finally admitted, still staring at the floor. She knew if she looked at Maggie her sister would be able to see all of the emotions she tried so hard to keep hidden when it came to a certain bowman. "At least if the calender here is right it is." she shrugged and tried to scrape some flour off her foot as she mumbled. "I just wanted to make him a cake is all."

Finally Beth looked up at her older sister who merely sighed and finished pulling on her coat. "I'll go ask Carol." she called over her shoulder as she left the room.

Beth squealed in delight and went back to figuring out the electric oven this house had, grateful as always for the solar panels that lined all of the houses in Alexandria's roofs.

The sound of the front door opening filled her ears and Beth called back to her sister as she tried to find more sugar to make frosting with. "Did she have any or do we need to go ask Rick?"

"Rick's on watch." a masculine voice suddenly filled her ears and Beth let out a small sequel of surprise before whirling around, banging her knee on the counter as she did so.

Daryl, with his leather jacket and and scuffed boots, often looked out of place in the nice houses of the safe zone. But here, in her explosion of a kitchen, he looked so out of place that it was nearly comical. He stepped into the room, looking down in confusion as a puff of flour rose in the air with his footfall.

He looked over at her questioningly but Beth merely gaped back at him, trying to figure out a way to explain without ruining her surprise.

"What the hell are you doing Greene?" Daryl finally asked as his eyes scanned the room with a look of near horror.

"Umm." Beth had not planned for this encounter and she was not fit to come up with a plausible excuse. She was running on twenty six hours with no sleep and more sugar than she had consumed in three years. She fought to come up with a believable reason but with Daryl staring at her like that her mind seemed to be wiped blank. It was not lost on her that this was the first time they had been alone in weeks.

Not knowing what else to do she merely flung her arms out, trying to ignore the fact that a rain of flour fell off her as she did so, before exclaiming, "Happy birthday?!" She had meant for it to come out excited but half way through it had morphed into a question as Daryl kept staring at her.

For a moment neither of them said anything and Beth bit her lip as a blush began to heat up her face. Daryl looked around the room in silence again before he locked his eyes onto her.

"This is for me?" he finally whispered.

Beth's blush deepened and she looked down at the floor. "I'm trying to make you a cake but there's been a few…mishaps." she admitted before looking back up at him.

Daryl let out a snort at her understatement before shoving his hands in his pockets. "No one's ever made me a birthday cake before." he finally announced, his gaze flickering back to her as she toyed with the hem of her shirt awkwardly.

"Well if I can't find any eggs that'll still be true." Beth let out a small laugh and Daryl gave her one of his small smiles before he took another step into the room, this time ignoring the flour puffing up to coat his pants legs and boots.

"Still, you tried to make one." he said as he approached her, his voice seemed to be a rough whisper and Beth suddenly felt her heart begin to hammer in her chest as he came ever closer. "That means something." he was right next to her now, but he still kept coming closer. Daryl reached his hand up to cup her face, undeterred by the cake batter sticking to her face as he peered down at her. "Thank you."

Beth found she couldn't quite remember how to form words as Daryl bent his head down to hers. Their lips were just about to brush when the front door crashed open and Maggie called out.

"Beth! We've got eggs!"


	23. Nurse Beth

for Tumblr user irius

"I'm fine Beth." Daryl protested as she entered his room in the house he shared with the Grimes family and Michonne. He pulled his blankets up higher on his chest to cover the scars on his torso as Beth ignored his qualms and walked to his bedside, setting her loaded tray down on the table besides it.

"Nonsense. You're sick." she stated unworriedly as she settled down on the edge of his bed. Daryl tried to protest again but really what would be the point? He knew it would only come out halfheartedly, they never got to be alone so why would he try to end this moment? Of course, it was just for the pleasure of being close to her again and had nothing to do with the accusations that he was sick. Because he wasn't. It was just really cold in the house and he had a tickle in his throat. He wasn't _sick,_he didn't get_ sick._

"Here these should help bring down your fever." Beth said as she held out her hand. Daryl accepted the two small blue pills she passed him before rolling his eyes.

"Don't have a fever." he grumbled causing Beth to raise her eyebrows at him. She reached over and lay her palm flat against his forehead. Daryl stopped complaining at the feel of her hand cool against his skin. He didn't have a fever, he always felt unnaturally warm in her presence.

At least that's what he tried to tell himself as Beth moved her hand to feel the sides of his face, a small frown line forming between her brows.

"You do so have a fever Mr. Dixon." she said before turning to grab a glass of water from the tray. Sometimes Daryl wondered if she knew what it did to him when she called him that. "Take the pills." Beth chided him, frowning deeply at him until he finally gave in and swallowed the pills in his hand.

He only did it to make her stop frowning, he still didn't think he had a fever. A fever was a symptom of sickness and Daryl didn't get sick.

Beth smiled slightly at him before turning back to her tray. "I brought you some soup. You need to eat something." she insisted before turning to help him sit up against the head board.

Daryl tried to shove her hands away (he could sit up by his damn self) but in the end he let her help him, making sure to keep his blanket pulled up high on his chest. He had only let her help him because he enjoyed the feel of her hands on his skin, he wasn't so weak that he needed aid in sitting up.

"You don't need to do this Beth." Daryl insisted as he rested his head back against the wall. "I'm fi-" his reassurement was cut off as he let out a violent sneeze. Beth rolled her eyes as she passed him a tissue from her tray.

"You're sick Daryl." Beth insisted as she pulled her leg up underneath her on the bed. Daryl opened his mouth to protest, to claim it was dust or allergies, when Beth cut him off. "Let me take care of you."

Her blue eyes were wide and earnest on his and while Daryl knew he wasn't sick he found he couldn't say no to her. If she wanted to play doctor who was he to turn her down?

Daryl sighed and settled back against the pillows, pretending he didn't notice the small smile that Beth was trying to hide at his acquiescence.

The things he did for Beth Greene.


	24. I've Never

"I've never…" Beth paused as she thought over her response, chewing on her lower lip as her brow furrowed in concentration. Daryl tried very hard not to stare at her mouth as he waited for her to complete her turn, instead he focused heavily on the beer bottle in his hand.

Alexandria seemed to have a large supply of alcoholic beverages which Daryl personally found to be a very poorly thought out idea. In this world there wasn't very much to stop people from getting addicted to things and offering alcohol freely to whoever wandered through their gates seemed like poor planning. Booze had a never failing ability to bring out the worst in people.

Well expect perhaps Beth, who was now smiling at him across the low table they sat huddled around, her blue eyes shining with drink and merriment. "I've never ridden a motorcycle." she announced proudly, her grin widening when Daryl rolled his eyes and took a sip from his bottle.

"Gonna have to fix that one Greene." he told her, pleased when her smile only grew wider at the idea. Truth be told he missed the freedom of his motorbike, the way the air lashed and pulled at his clothes and hair. He wanted Beth to experience the feeling of damn near flying, that was all. He didn't want to ride a bike with her just so he could feel her pressed close to him, to be the only thing in the world preventing her from a disastrous collision with the road.

"Its your turn." Beth said as she shifted to sit on her knees, leaning her elbows on the table. Her slim fingers tapped tunelessly on the glass bottle as she grinned at him. It reminded him of the night, the night he thought would be the last time he ever saw her, when she played the piano for him.

"Never played a piano." he grunted as he tried hard not to remember the way she had looked so beautiful as she had sang, the candlelight flickering off of her blonde hair, or of what his subconscious had finally brought to the forefront of his mind in that moment.

Beth grinned as she took a sip, opening her mouth to offer a rebuttal when their peace in the room was interrupted by their companions' laughter in the kitchen. Beth shot a curious look over at them before turning back to Daryl.

He cleared his throat and gestured over his shoulder at the doorway to the kitchen.

"Wanna see what's going on?" he offered, hoping very much that she would refuse. Even though they had all been reunited for nearly six weeks, alone time with Beth was a rare and treasured gift. When she shook her head Daryl had to hide his grin with a hurried sip from his bottle. She would rather spend time with him than join in on the raucous laughter in the other room. Daryl tried to convince himself it didn't mean anything but he still couldn't help but feel pleased.

Beth tapped her finger against her lip as she thought and once again he had to force himself not to look at her mouth. Daryl knew how he felt about Beth, had known since that night in the funeral home when he damn near almost told her, but he had no idea how she felt about him. He was sure she could not return his feelings, for why would she? Beth was a pure ball of hope and he was a dirty tainted redneck. She would never want to be with someone like him.

He shifted uncomfortably at the darkening thoughts racing through his mind and took another swig of his beer in an attempt to drown out his brain's sudden self loathing. Beth shot him a worried look, as if she could read his troubles on his face, before she spoke.

"I've never…" Daryl couldn't be sure but it seemed as though her face was reddening as she stared at him. Before she could finish her statement the laughter came closer and their friends began to spill into the room. Daryl stifled a groan as they approached the low table he and Beth sat at.

"What are you two doing in here?" Carl asked with a grin as he sat down on the couch behind Beth. "You should have seen how stupid they're all being."

Daryl snorted as the others all began to protest to one of the two sober people in the room. Daryl shot a quick look at Bob, pleased to see he was still sipping from his glass of water.

"What are guys doing?" Maggie asked as she sat down next to her sister who instinctively scooted over to allow her room at the small table before them.

Beth opened her mouth to answer but Daryl beat her too it, hoping that the others would leave if he put enough roughness in his tone.

"Playin' a game." he grunted, trying to shoot a look at Rick. Of all the people in their group Rick was the only one who had any notion that Daryl might think of Beth as more than a friend. Unfortunately, the man was apparently in a deep conversation with Michonne, their heads tilted close as they talked at the fringe of the group. Daryl fought back a sigh as he looked back at Beth, surprised to see that she looked as disappointed as he felt by their sudden company.

"How'd you get Daryl to agree to that?" Glenn asked with a laugh as he settled down behind Maggie, who leaned back against his chest with a look of contentment Daryl tried very hard not to be jealous of.

Daryl glared at them, more annoyed by their presence than their actual words. "Played before."

"This beer tastes better than that moonshine though." Beth said, she was so busy sharing a grin with Daryl that she missed the look of shock on Maggie face.

"You drank moonshine?" she asked with a gasp, sitting up to stare at her sister. "Bethy, you could've gone _blind_."

Beth blinked in surprise at her sister's reaction before whispering, so soft Daryl almost didn't hear her. "Ain't nothing worth seeing in this world anyway."

Hearing his words slip past her lips felt like a punch to the gut. She didn't look like she believed them at all but still, he wished he could tell her how wrong he had been. There was still thing worth seeing. As long as she was in the world, there would always be things worth seeing.

Maggie didn't comment on Beth's words, instead she shot a look between her sister and Daryl. Her eyes seemed suddenly accusatory. "This was when you got out from the prison." it wasn't a question but still Beth and Daryl both nodded a bit sheepishly. The room had gone quiet as everyone watched Maggie try to come to terms with the fact that Daryl had apparently been irresponsible enough to let her baby sister drink moonshine in their absence.

"What else did you two get up too? Try some drugs, start some fires?!" Maggie cried, ignoring the placating hand that Glenn placed on her arm as she overreacted. Daryl felt a brush of annoyance that she suddenly thought he would have been so careless with Beth but before he could even defend himself all attention was drawn to Beth who was trying very hard to stifle her laughter behind her hand.

Maggie turned her glare from Daryl to stare at her baby sister who upon seeing the look of disbelief on her Maggie's face abandoned all hope of hiding her laughter.

Daryl fought very hard to keep his features straight as Beth giggled.

"I've never." she finally choked out once she had calmed her giggles down. She shared a small smile with Daryl before she continued. "I've never started a fire."

Maggie opened her mouth to continue arguing but closed it when both Beth and Daryl rose their bottles to their lips and drank. The elder Greene stared at them both for a moment before shaking her head and leaning back against Glenn.

"I don't think I want to know." she finally sighed causing Beth to bite back another smile.

"I do." Carl pipped up from the couch, for once looking as young as he was as he waited eagerly for their story.

Daryl shrugged and mumbled something incoherent as he stood. Suddenly explaining why they burned down a house seemed like a private secret he didn't want to share. He headed for the door tossing back something about going out for a smoke as he stepped outside. Beth could explain the house however she wanted to.

The winter air bit at him as he fumbled the nearly empty pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He still couldn't believe he had been lucky enough to find smokes at all, they were one of the rarest commodities these days.

The sound of the match striking seemed loud in the stillness that was the Alexandria Safe Zone. Even though they had been their nearly a month Daryl had yet to grow used to the sight of houses with candlelight filling their windows. Of streets clear of corpses and debris. The muted sound of his friends in the house behind him just barely reached his ears as he inhaled the smoke deeply into his lungs. Daryl cursed himself for fleeing the room as he had but he didn't want to have to explain to anyone what burning down that houses had signified to him. His past had been reduced to ashes that day and he had felt like a man a drift at seas, clinging to the one thing he had left as an anchor.

But Daryl couldn't keep clinging to Beth Greene forever.

When she had been taken from him he had thought that was it, that was the moment that he would never come back from. He kept going because he did not know how to stop, because he knew she would not want him to. If he hadn't found Rick, the others, Daryl would not have lasted very much longer out there. It wasn't just because of the men he was with, Daryl just found that the routine of living wasn't enough to make him get up each morning.

After he had been reunited with the others things got easier. It gave him a reason to keep going, keep fighting what had always felt like a losing battle. But even after that Daryl couldn't help but feel as though crucial parts of him were missing.

And then they found Beth and Daryl truly felt whole again.

Which of course, was exactly the reason he had never told her how he felt. He couldn't risk losing her, not again.

The sound of the door opening drew him from his thoughts. Daryl cast a curious look over his shoulder, an excuse for leaving the house so frantically already forming on his tongue. He'd been expecting Rick, maybe Glenn, so it took his brain a moment to comprehend that it wasn't either of them standing shivering in the doorway.

Beth stood before the closed door, her arms crossed tight to battle the cold as she gave him a sheepish smile

"I'm sorry about Maggie." she whispered, as attune to the serene silence of the outdoors as Daryl was. "Maggie's just been really over protective since the prison."

"S'alright." Daryl muttered as he put his cigarette out in the small pile of snow on porch.. "Sides thought you missed her bossing you around."

A small sound of surprise caused Daryl to look over at Beth who was staring over at him with wide eyes. "You remembered?" she whispered.

He shrugged, suddenly fascinated with his boots. Sometimes he would forget to hide how much she meant to him and Daryl could tell this was one of those moments. Daryl grunted something about going inside and stepped towards the door but Beth hadn't moved an inch so he stopped a foot from her, shifting his weight unsuredly when she kept staring up at him.

Neither of them said anything as they stood in the darkness, their eyes trained on each other's faces despite how little they could see. Daryl swallowed roughly, certain that Beth could see in his face everything he had been trying to keep hidden. But her eyes were wide and earnest and unless he was mistaken Daryl thought he could see something like longing in her gaze as she looked back at him.

A fluttering of white caught his eye and suddenly a small flurry of snowflakes began to fall down upon them. Daryl opened his mouth to tell Beth again that they should get inside, she didn't even have a coat on, but she was staring up at the sky with a look of pure serenity on her face. He didn't think he had ever seen something so beautiful.

Daryl knew he had to get them inside because if he had to be around her alone for much longer he didn't know if he could stop himself from saying something disastrous. "Beth." he whispered, wincing when his voice came out rougher than usual.

Beth turned her blue gaze back onto him as she leaned back against the door behind her. A small shy smile spread across her face as she whispered. "I've never been kissed in the snow."

Daryl stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, maybe it was the alcohol slowly his brain but more than likely in was his proximity to her. The snow crunched under Beth's feet as she straightened and took the smallest of steps towards him, biting her lip once again as Daryl's mind suddenly clicked everything into place.

He took a small step and suddenly there was only an inch or so between them. He wasn't even touching her but Daryl found that he could hardly breath as she stared up at him, the snow falling onto her face. Daryl reached up to brush a flake off of her skin, watching in amazement as Beth's eyes drifted shut as his thumb brushed the flake off her face.

This couldn't be real.

He rose his other hand to cup the other side of her face taking a deep breath of surprise as Beth rose her hands to grip the front of his vest.

This couldn't be happening.

Daryl bent his head down towards hers as the snow began to fall faster around them. Beth rose up on her tiptoes to meet him halfway and suddenly, before he could even fully wrap his mind around the idea, their lips were pressed together.

Even though her lips were cold from the snow it felt as though they ignited a fire within him. Beth pressed herself closer to him and he dropped his hands from her face to wrap them around her waist as her hands trailed up his chest to cling to his shoulders. Daryl's mind went haywire at the feel of her, all thoughts of the cold or of walkers or how he wasn't good enough for her flew out of his brain at her touch. Everything was Beth, there was nothing else.

Expect of course there was because suddenly the door behind Beth was thrown open and the candlelight from inside fell across them. Beth kept her arms around his neck as she pulled away enough to look over her shoulder to see an open mouthed Glenn staring at them.

Daryl felt like he should move, the door was open wide enough that everyone inside the house could see them, but his hands only tightened around Beth's waist as everyone stared at them.

"Its snowing." Glenn finally said as he shook his head. "You guys should come in soon."

"We will." Beth said with a smile as Glenn began to shut the door again. Before the door was even fully closed Beth was kissing him again, her cold fingers twisting into his hair. Before his senses numbed out everything but her Daryl very clearly heard Carl's voice.

"Why are you all so surprised? I've been telling you they were a thing for weeks!"


	25. Super Super Sad

AN-I wrote this for a prompt and its really **really **sad. I don't blame you at all if you skip this one.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Daryl always knew no one got a happy ending in life, especially not now. But _this?_

Even he had never considered this.

They had been searching in the woods again, Daryl blatantly ignoring everyone hinting that they should call off their endless hunt for Beth. He had just been about to suggest they turn back and try to find the funeral home again when a scream had rang out behind him.

Daryl knew in seconds who was the cause of it. He'd turned to the sound before anyone else could even blink, tearing through the undergrowth as her name tore loose from his throat. "BETH!"

She screamed again, wordlessly and louder, and the pain in it made him run faster. He had to get to her, had to find her. He would not let their reunion be foiled by some damn walkers. Daryl ran blindly through the woods, ignoring the sounds of his group running behind him, ignoring everything but the thought of her.

He stumbled into the clearing just in time to see the last walker go down and a small blonde girl pull a knife from its skull.

"Beth." where before her name had held only pain now it held nothing but hope. Daryl stepped further into the clearing as the girl stiffened before turning to face him.

"Daryl." he was so busy staring in wonder at her face that it took him a moment to realize her tears were not from joy and the large amount of blood on her shirt was new. She collapsed to her knees just as he rushed to her and Daryl only just managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Not that it mattered now.

What were a few more bruises when a chunk of her flesh had been bit off?

"No." he whispered as he lay Beth down carefully on the ground, pressing his hand firmly against the wound gushing out blood. "No no no no no no." he didn't notice he was still speaking, didn't realize it until Beth reached up to pull his hand from where her neck and shoulder met, twining their blood soaked fingers together.

"You're alive." she whispered, a smile spreading across her face as she looked up at him.

Daryl shook his head wildly, not even noticing his tears dripping onto her face. Only Beth Greene would smile in the face of her death.

"I always knew you made it out." she whispered, her hand clutching his as Daryl leaned down too press his forehead against hers. The sound of her ragged breathing caused more tears to fall, making tracks in the dirt on her cheeks.

"I was trying to find you." Daryl whispered, his voice raw as she coughed, her other hand reaching up to grip his arm. The breath of her laughter reached his ear and Daryl shook his head, unable to see the humor in this.

"You did find me." she whispered.

"Not like this!" Daryl protested as he pulled up enough to look down at her face. "You have to be okay Beth." he whispered, his voice a rough and ragged thing he had never heard before as he whispered. "I love you."

He had never said those words out loud to anyone in his whole life but as he stared down at Beth Greene Daryl knew he meant them. He loved her, loved her smile, loved her laugh, loved her unfailing ability to have hope and see the best in people. Too see the best in him.

She was smiling at him now, even as her blood stained the grass beneath her. Smiling as she looked up at him and whispered, "Oh." her mouth opened again as if she meant to say more but nothing else passed her lips as her hand slowly slid down from his arm.

Daryl didn't understand what happened at first but as he stared down into her unblinking eyes he realized the truth, she was gone.

An inhuman cry passed his lips as he sat up, wrapping his arms around her to pull him up with him. He knew what had to be done but he couldn't, not yet. Tears blinded him as he clung to her body, wishing with all his heart that he had found her just a few minutes earlier.

All he wanted in the world was to find Beth Greene, but not like this.

Never like this.


	26. Gift

12 Days of Bethyl

**Day One: Gift**

Daryl Dixon was a lot of things and Beth Greene took an exorbitant amount of pride in knowing she was one of the very few people who knew just how complicated of a person he really was.

Daryl was smart(but quietly so. Many people looked at him and saw a dumb redneck and he knew it. He tended to keep his intelligence quiet until it was needed), he was kind (if he liked you of course. Lord help you if he didn't), he was funny (even though he claimed he wasn't), he was brave (so so brave. Beth could still feel his hands as he shoved her out of the way of the bullet Dawn had fired that should have ended her life), he was attractive (well everyone could see that but Beth liked to point it out because everyone else only got to look while she got to _touch_), and as Beth had recently learned: Daryl Dixon was impossible to Christmas shop for.

She knew it did not help that he had never truly had a Christmas. Certainly not before the turn and not really even after. Sure they had had a small Christmas at the prison but Beth had not been in charge of picking out Daryl's gift that year. She couldn't even remember what he had gotten or who gave it to him. She could not bring herself to ask the others for ideas as she began to spend every waking moment trying to pick something out for him.

It also did not help that Christmas shopping now was nothing like it used to be. She could not drag Maggie and her mother (perhaps even Shawn if she had good enough dirt on him) through department store after department store looking for a gift for her boyfriend. The word _boyfriend_still sent tingles up and down her spine even if it didn't feel like a strong enough word for the bond her and Daryl shared.

No their version of 'shopping' today was joining the run teams to find something (or asking someone to pick something up for you if you were lucky enough to be close to a runner) or making something yourself. Beth knew three people on three different run teams. She knew that Glenn would grab whatever she asked him to with only a little teasing and Michonne would as well, she wouldn't even tease her just give Beth that knowing smile she loved to cast at Daryl and her. Abraham would, well Beth didn't really know what the red haired man would do. He never seemed to follow her expectations He would likely be her last resort if she ended up getting her gift from the run team.

Beth was crafty, she always had been, she could easily make Daryl something. The problem was that he wasn't the crafts type of person. She had even considered writing him a song but she would only able to perform it for him on occasion and the only guitar at ASZ still had broken strings (Glenn was looking for new ones everywhere they went but so far no luck).

No, Beth wanted to give Daryl something lasting, something he could hold onto if something ever happened to her. _When_ something happened to her. Beth had already had one close call the day she had left that awful hospital, she knew all to well how short life had become.

Finally two weeks before Christmas Beth gave up on what she had always thought was her secret skill, her superpower. She always knew how to find people the perfect Christmas gift. The skill had worked for everyone else in their group but it seemed as though Daryl Dixon was her kryptonite.

The man in question was currently shaping arrows and sitting beside the fireplace of the home they shared with Maggie, Glenn and Tara. Beth could still remember the shocked looks on the group as they moved in together, even though they weren't even sharing a room. Well, usually. Beth huffed out a sigh as she sat down beside him on the couch and crossed her arms, mildly irritated that she was going to have to do this.

Daryl cast her a look out of the corner of his eye. "What's the matter Greene?" he drawled rather unconcernedly. He knew her moods to well by this point, knew she wasn't actually mad about something and just annoyed. He just didn't seem to know the annoyance was at him.

Because of course she was annoyed at him. It was his fault she was going to have to break her nineteen year streak of never having to ask this question out loud. Beth knew it was a silly thing to be upset about just as she knew it was in no way his fault but it had been one of the very few things left from her life before. It was for that reason that the question came out through clenched teeth, "What do you want for Christmas?"

Daryl blinked and simply stared at her for a long moment. Beth bit back a groan because of course he had to make this hard for her! Couldn't he just say he wanted arrows or a book or something so she could go find out a way to get it and not have to sit here with her shame?

Her superpower was over, she had lost.

But it seemed Daryl was going to make it even harder for her because he merely shrugged and turned back to his arrows.

"You ain't need to get me anything."

Beth stared at him open mouthed, watching as he turned back to the sticks he was painstakingly shaping into arrows for his crossbow. She had not expected that answer because of course she had to get him something! Its what people did when they were safe, its what _she_ did. And even if she wasn't the gift giving type she thought that girlfriends were always supposed to give their surly older boyfriends presents, especially ones who had already said that they had never really gotten presents in their whole lives. That answer was simply…

"Unacceptable." Daryl looked up at her with a crinkled brow and Beth blushed as she realized she said the word aloud. To hide her embarrassment she quickly elaborated. "I have to get you a gift Daryl."

She did not bother to tell him that she had to get him the _perfect_ gift. She had to get him a gift that would make up for all the years he never got anything. Beth knew he would not want her to think like that, would not want his past to be tainting her holiday, but she couldn't help it. She needed to get him something spectacular.

He was still just staring at her with those deep blue eyes not saying anything. Beth jumped to her feet, standing before him with her hands on her hips. She just wanted to do something nice for him, to give him new memories of Christmas to help replace the bad ones but it seemed Daryl didn't care about that. She simply had to get him something but Daryl didn't seem to see it that way.

Beth was just about to tell him that if he didn't give her any ideas she was going to get him numerous presents in the hopes one would be the right thing when he carefully placed the arrow down on the floor by his feet.

"What would I need a gift for?" Daryl finally grunted, reaching up to place his hands above her own on her hips. The last bits of lingering annoyance drained out of her at his touch. Beth opened her mouth to tell him she had to get him a gift, that it was just what she did, when Daryl suddenly pulled her down into his lap.

Despite her lingering sadness at the loss of her superpower Beth couldn't help giggling as Daryl wrapped his arms around her waist before resting his head in the crook of her shoulder. His lips brushed against her skin and her heart began to beat faster as he whispered, "I've already got you."


	27. Snow

12 Days of Bethyl

**Day Two: Snow**

"You're going to catch your death out here Mr. Dixon."

The sweet teasing voice reached his ears and Daryl could not stop the small smile from spreading across his face at the sound. He cast a look over his shoulder to see Beth, bundled up in a red wool coat that was far to large for her.

He felt a pang of worry at the color, the walkers might not really see very well but bright colors drew them like moths to a flame and Beth's coat practically shone even in the evening light. Even living behind walls as they did now the coat was dangerous but in a different way. It made her blonde hair stand out even more and the way she pulled the too long sleeves down over her hands and tucked the collar up against the weather were just making the coat all kinds of bad.

Beth took a few steps closer to him, the fresh fallen snow softening the sounds of her footsteps. Theirs were the only tracks in the snow in this remote corner of their sanctuary. Few people ever went close to the fences if they could help it so Daryl learned early on that whenever he needed space (he was used to open air not being cramped up like a cage. He couldn't even leave as often as he did at the prison since Douglas, the leader of their gated community, didn't trust any of them yet to go on runs) that all he had to do was head to the fences.

The spot he liked best was at the north east corner of the walls right behind a large tree that hid him from sight of anyone he happened to need space from. Most people knew by now not to seek him out when he started to feel trapped inside of the four walls but Beth had found him early that very first day.

She had simply settled down next to him, leaning against the tree in silence like they were out on their own again.

It comforted him, those times with Beth behind that tree. So much that he began to go there daily, always right after dinner. He wouldn't be there long before Beth joined him. They had started the meetings in silence but just like the silence between them after the prison fell hadn't lasted very long neither had that one.

They talked about everything, well usually Beth talked and Daryl listened. But whenever he needed to say something (and somehow she always knew before he did it that he had some story that just needed to come out) she would fall silent and let him speak. There were some subjects they only touched briefly, such as her time in the hospital that they had barely got her out of or his short time with Joe's group. But soon it was the rare day that they sat in silence, but even then Daryl would not want to spend the time with anyone else.

That was why even though the first snow of the year was softly falling around them Daryl had headed out to their spot that night. Part of him had not been expecting her to come but he knew that Beth would not disappointed him.

And she hadn't.

She was standing less than a foot from him with a smile on her face and snowflakes in her hair. Daryl had never been one to stop and appreciate art or things of beauty. He had always thought that pretty things were something that he could never have and he didn't want to waste his time looking at them. But he would gladly spend years simply looking at Beth Greene.

He didn't know when the shift had happened between them, sometime between burning down the house and the funeral home if he had to guess. When she had been taken from him Daryl had tried to shove his feelings for her aside, he had to focus on saving Beth, his friend, and leave any other thoughts about her behind. They were to dangerous to carry with him into that hospital.

But the second they had stepped out of the door, her clutching tight to his hand and only letting go when she saw her sister across the parking lot, the feelings came rushing back with such a force Daryl knew they had never actually left.

With each secret smile they shared, each inside joke they told, each moment he was simply in her presence the feelings only grew. He knew that Beth felt something for him too, that his advances were not unwelcome, but it seemed neither of them was willing to make the first move. Their relationship was already more than Daryl had ever had with a woman and he was in no rush to push it. But with Beth standing so close to him in that dangerous red coat it was taking a lot more of Daryl's self control than usual not to lean down and kiss her.

The snow was beginning to fall harder and Beth took a step closer, shortening the distance between them to mere inches as she shivered.

"I was startin' to think it would never snow." she admitted, looking up at him with a grin.

Daryl made a noise of agreement as he reached up to unwind the scarf Michonne had forced on him (_We both know where you're goin'. Take it.)_ before he left. Beth watched him remove the blue fabric curiously, her eyes widening as he reached up to place it around her neck. He heard the soft sound of her breath hitch as his cold fingers brushed against her skin as he looped the scarf around her.

She was still staring up at him with those wide blue eyes and maybe it was that or maybe it was the cold but Daryl suddenly found he could not get his hands to move. They lingered by the collar of that damn red coat (how had she known it was his favorite color?) as he stared down at her.

A shiver ran through Beth then and Daryl dropped his hands down from her collar, moving to place one on her lower back as he turned to steer her towards their houses. "We should head inside."

Beth took one step before she stopped and turned her head up to face him, an all to familiar dangerous smile stretching across her face as she whispered, "We should build a snowman."

And when Daryl returned to the house two hours later, face and hands bright red from cold and his coat dripping with the snowballs Beth had gleefully thrown at him neither Rick, Michonne or even Carl looked very surprised.


	28. Reunited

This is set around the end of 5/02, what I imagine could have happened had Daryl been there for Abraham's DC or bust speech.

"I won't go without her."

His voice seemed to ring in the still air, as though it bounced and ricocheted off of the old wooden walls of the church. Daryl's words seemed to echo in his own ears as he rose his head and met Abraham's deep frown with hardened eyes.

No one said anything for a moment as the two men openly glared at each other. If this was going to come down to a battle of wits or fists Daryl knew that he would win either one, no matter who his opponent was. When it came to Beth Greene Daryl would battle the devil himself for the chance to find her. Sergeant Abraham fucking Ford was not going to be the thing that kept him from her. At this point, anything that stood between Daryl and Beth was expendable.

The tense silence and their staring contest was shattered by a whisper, in a voice that cut Daryl to the core.

"Daryl." His head swiveled slowly to see Maggie shaking her head sadly as she stared at her hands folded in her lap, not even willing to look at him as she drove the knife further into his heart. "We don't even know where to look."

And that was all it took. One sentence, seven words, spoken by the person Daryl knew Beth missed the most. The one who she cried for at night when she thought Daryl was asleep. The one whose name she whimpered in the darkness like a promise of light to come. Beth had always been so certain that she would see her sister again, as certain as she was that the sun would rise each morning even though it never gave her any such guarantees. Beth had never stopped believing for one second that she would see Maggie again but it seemed her older sister did not share the same faith.

He hadn't realized how hard he had been clinging to the slim branch of hope that Maggie would join his search until it snapped in his fingers and he fell, hard and fast to a place where he thought he had long since left behind.

Daryl hadn't realized he was standing until his feet were already underneath him and he was towering over everyone but Abraham, who was standing in the corner and glowering at him for interrupting his save the world speech.

"Are you fucking kidding me Greene." It did not come out as a question but as a growl, hissing past his lips like a feral living thing. Glenn rose his head, mouth already falling open to defend his precious wife but he didn't speak fast enough.

"You're not even gonna try to look? You're just gonna give up on her? Just like that?! She mean that little to you?!" It was as though Daryl had no control over his mouth, his words. The dam within him had broken and every bit of anger and pain he had felt since Beth had disappeared seemed to be flooding out of him in his desperation to make the others understand, to make them _see._

Going to DC might save the world but if Beth Greene wasn't with him, there wasn't a world worth saving.

They were all staring at him, eyes wide and mouths clenched or dropped open as they watched him in various shades of shock. Either they hadn't seen the change in him after his time with Beth or they hadn't realized what it meant. Daryl had thought what he felt for Beth was painted across his features but perhaps his friends just didn't know what to look for in his face, or it had just been there all along. Either way he could tell that the new ones, the ones who had never known Daryl and Beth to be two separate planets merely orbiting around each other could see it now. He could see their understanding as they looked at him.

"She never gave up on any of you!" he was screaming now, as though his volume was why they weren't understanding. He glared openly into each of their faces, the glare that only Beth herself had ever been able to withstand. "I did." Daryl threw the words at them, hoping that his obvious pain and guilt at his failures would make them feel something, anything. No one seemed to want to look him in the eye but like a car accident on the side of a road no one could tear their gaze away. "I would have just walked away if it wasn't for Beth! Y'all do whatever the hell you want. I'm going to find her."

He turned his back on them then, didn't spare a single glance back as he grabbed his crossbow and stalked out of the front doors of the church. Daryl didn't need them, he would rescue Beth on his own. Wherever she was he would find her.

He would find her and they would run away together and never look back.

Except of the course they wouldn't. Beth would never walk away from her family like that, not if she had even the slightest bit of hope that they were alive. Never mind that they couldn't be bothered to lift a finger to help her, she would find them.

Daryl was at the edge of the yard when he heard the door to the church open again. He heard the hurried footsteps but he didn't bother to look over his shoulder. He didn't need to know who followed him because knowing that would only show him who didn't. He didn't know what he was going to tell Beth if that wasn't Maggie trailing along after him.

They continued on in silence, nothing but their breath and each other's footsteps to fill the empty space between them. Daryl realized after a few seconds that there were two people on his tail but he still could not get himself to see who it was. He didn't look back until the light of headlights illuminated the road and threw the shadows of two figures down on the pavement in front of him.

Daryl turned to watch the church bus pull up beside him and Maggie and Glenn who walked only feet behind him, eyeing him with looks of equal weariness and guilt. The metal doors opened with a groan of rusted hinges and Rick stepped down the stairs to meet his eyes, as steely and confident as ever.

"We'll find her." He offered nothing else as he stepped back to let them onto the bus but those words were a promise enough. Daryl had known Rick Grimes long enough to know that when he said something was going to happen it did. He stepped onto the bus feeling as though a weight had lifted off of him. Together they would find her.

Abraham glared at him from the driver's seat as he made his way up the steps. "Once we find your girlfriend you both help us get to DC."

Daryl may not have been military but he knew from Abraham's voice that was an order and not a request. He bristled at anyone giving him a directive but if it meant he had more help with Beth, well he would do whatever it took.

He nodded curtly as he slid into the seat next to Rick and if anyone noticed he didn't correct the term of 'girlfriend' they didn't say anything within his hearing.

Finding Beth was nowhere near as easy as getting everyone to decide to help him find her. They had no starting point and for the first week they had no sign of where to even begin looking. Daryl had to pointedly ignore the death glares Abraham was giving him more frequently with each passing hour.

It was physically tolling him not to give up hope, for her being alive, that they would find her. The ghost of her voice constantly flooded through his brain, urging him to keep going, to keep looking, to keep hoping.

He would try to imagine what it would be like when they did find her, but he never settled on one possibility. Daryl assumed that someone was holding her so he imagined that it would be bloody and that he was going to have kill some people. Or a lot of people.

But in any scenario he had concocted he had never imagined one as simple as the truth. Daryl was not expecting for her to simply stumble out of the bushes onto the road where he stood, wearing dirty blue hospital scrubs with an equally disheveled boy behind her. He was not expecting her eyes to widen and then light up like the sun when they fell on him.

He did not expect her to run to him, or his bow to fall from his numb fingers. Daryl always thought she would run for Maggie first but she didn't, but that was likely because she hadn't seen her sister where she sat on the bus steps, because Beth had yet to tear her eyes away from Daryl.

Daryl had thought he would be the one to rush at her, that after so long of being away from her he would want to close that last bit of distance as fast as possible. But his feet were glued to the floor and it was Beth who did the running, who flung herself into his arms as he took his first real breath since she had been torn from him.

He had tried for so long to come up with something to say to her, some way to tell her what she surely already knew. How he clung to hope, for her, because of her. How he never stopped believing for even a second that she was alive. How he had planned on moving hell or earth to find her. How he loved her.

But just as his feet would not move his mouth would not open and all Daryl could do was wind his arms tighter around her as she pressed herself into his chest. He barely heard the voices of the others, the exclamations of joy and surprise or the questions directed at her companion. All Daryl could hear was her breath warm in his ear, all he could feel was her heartbeat pounding fiercely against his chest.

And it was that that got the words to finally strangle themselves out of his throat in more of a gasp than an actual sentence. "I knew we'd find you."

Her arms were tight around his neck and her lips were warm against his ear as she whispered "So did I."


	29. Sweet

She was doing it again.

Daryl used to think that she wasn't even aware of it, that every time it happened it was purely an unconscious move. He liked to believe that she had no idea of the affect that it had on him but then one time she made eye contact with him and the smirk she gave him was proof enough.

Beth knew exactly what what she was doing to him.

It wouldn't have have been so bad if she would refrain from doing it when they were around other people but Beth either didn't care or assumed they would think like Daryl once had, that the suggestive nature of it was incidental. One time Daryl caught Eugene eyeing her but one growl from him was enough to make sure that never happened again.

As time passed it began to happen more and more, nearly every damn meal it felt like. After she finished eating whatever meager meal they managed to scrape up Beth would make sure she was well within Daryl's line of sight(not that she usually had to move very far, if at all) and slowly lick the remaining food from her fingers.

He shouldn't have found it as enthralling as he did, truly. It wasn't as if she was sucking on her fingers or making some phallic show out of it. She was simply licking the pads of her fingertips but even that alone was enough to drive Daryl mad.

It didn't help that they never got any privacy in the camps they set up. Trying to make sense of their new relationship was not made easier by the fact that everyone lived piled on top of each other. Other than a few stolen kisses the only time Daryl ever even got to touch Beth was at night when they curled around each other on the floor. Even that was often cut short for watch duty.

Of course if Daryl wasn't such a private person he could kiss Beth more, or hold her, or anything really. But other than when they slept he was reluctant to make their relationship so vivid for the others to see, even though no one else seemed to have similar qualms about their own. He had lost count of the amount times he had heard Rosita and Abraham having sex.

But Daryl wasn't like that. Everyone knew of course, that Beth and him had long since crossed the bridge of friendship into something more. They noticed the lingering looks, the times Daryl would brush her elbow with his hand just to remind himself that she was still there. But other than the night Maggie sat next to him, telling him that he was good for Beth and thanking him for never giving up on her, no one ever mentioned it. Their relationship was accepted into the group's dynamic with ease.

The group sat around a small burning fire in good spirits that night. They had found a few grape vines and were currently feasting on the fruit. But even the juice bursting on his tongue was not enough to distract Daryl as Beth licked her fingers clean beside him. He could feel something building inside him and he was close enough to Beth's ear that when he let out the smallest whisper of a growl she heard it.

For a second he almost felt embarrassed but Beth simply giggled as she dropped her hands into her lap.

Daryl's eyes narrowed as she turned her head to the side to grin at him. "You gotta stop doing that." he finally mumbled as the small smile on her face stretched wider.

"And what if I don't?" she whispered, her breath tickling his face as she leaned just a fraction closer.

Daryl knew a challenge when he heard one and his heart beat a bit faster as he struggled with the idea of kissing her right then and there. They were close to the fire, only a foot or two from the others on either side of them but oh how Daryl wanted to kiss her anyway. No one seemed to be paying them any mind, not that Daryl could really tell as he couldn't quite pull his eyes away from Beth's face.

She was looking up at him with a small smile and he knew that she would be okay with him if he kissed her or not, Beth had never been one to push or pull him in any direction. And that was the reason he wanted to do so so badly right now, not the sight of her licking her fingers, or the way her blue eyes gleamed in the firelight. It was her. All of her.

Beth always liked to tell him how brave he was but as he closed the small distance between them to catch her lips with his it felt like a whole new kind of bravery. It was the kind of bravery he had first seen in the girl whose lips he was caressing. The bravery of letting people in, of letting others know how much you cared.

The sweetness of the grapes still clinging to their mouths mingled together as they kissed, their family's conversations still continuing in the background.


	30. Worms

"Hey! I was gonna eat that!" Daryl cried out in protest as Beth pulled the still wiggling worm from his fingers with her nose crinkled in disgust. They knelt next to each other on the damp forest floor, the recent rainfall bringing several worms up to the surface. Daryl had been excited when he spotted a particularly fat worm and he'd just been about to feast on it when Beth took it from him.

"We don't need to eat worms anymore Daryl." She said patiently, reminding him as she so often did that they were safe now. Or at least those of them that had survived to see the town behind Alexandria's walls were.

Being safe, being well fed was not a feeling that Daryl had ever been accustomed to in his entire life. He was used to running and scavenging, used to falling asleep with his stomach cramping and pleading for a 'more' that never existed. He was having a hard time adjusting to the life of relative ease in Alexandria which was part of the reason why he so often went hunting.

Of course another large part of it was the blonde girl kneeling beside him. He could never ask for a better partner than Beth Greene. She always had his back and she had almost as good an eye for tracking as he did, which was of course how she had found them again even after they had left what he had thought to be her corpse behind in Atlanta.

"I like the taste." he finally admitted, his eyes not leaving Beth's even as his fingers moved carefully through the dirt for the worm she had abandoned by their feet. Her eyes narrowed as she caught sight of his movements but before she could reach out and stop him Daryl tipped his head back and dropped the worm into his mouth.

It wriggled against his tongue for a moment before he bit down on it, grinning to himself as Beth looked at him with her face twisted up in disgust.

"That's sick." she finally said with a shake of her head as Daryl swallowed loudly and made a show of licking his lips as she groaned.

"C'mere Greene." he joked, reaching forward to grab her arm and stop her as she moved to rise to her feet. Beth let him pull her to him with a sound of disgruntlement that he thought was only partially feigned. As he bent to kiss her she turned her face away quickly, causing him to get a mouthful of her blonde hair and make his own noise of protest.

"No way Mr. Dixon." He pulled away to watch Beth's blue eyes sparkle as she teased him. "Just because you like the taste of worms doesn't mean that I do."

"Nah." Daryl agreed, bending closer to press his nose against hers. "But you like me."

That time when he bent to kiss her she didn't pull away.


	31. Just Once

They had been on the road for five days before Beth stopped spending half the nights muffling her sobs into her wadded up shirt. By the time she finally makes it through the night without sending Daryl's skin crawling with the sound of her tears all he can feel is a sense of relief. He had never been good around crying women, the few times in his life he had been around one before he would actually just get up and leave. Go find someone who actually knew how to deal with this kind of thing.

But there was no getting up and leaving Beth.

Not now, not ever really. The prison was gone, their family scattered like ashes in the wind. Well, not all of their family. Not the man Beth cried herself sick over every night.

At a loss of what to do Daryl chose to simply ignore her crying and the rapidly darkening circles forming underneath Beth's eyes. They walked in a daze, a fog of grief and guilt from which they could never seem to outrun. Daryl scoured the ground for the slightest traces of their family's tracks, Beth hovering at his shoulder, but all he ever found were the stumbling imprints of walkers. For all he knew the only other person to leave the prison alive was already with him.

After a week of being out on the road he is certain Beth has slept only a handful of hours which was less than even him. So he is not surprised one night to see her sit up where she lay across the clearing from him, nor is he surprised to hear her sigh in frustration. He knew what it was like when your mind would not offer you the mercy of sleep.

Daryl was surprised to see Beth climb to her feet, pausing for a second before turning and walking over to him quickly as if she was afraid if she stopped she would not start again. She hovered above him shifting her weight from foot to foot as she looked down at him nervously. Daryl was uncertain of what she wanted so he just stared up at her and waited for her to either open her mouth or sit down. He was expecting for her to declare she was going to go out and try to track her sister again, despite how far they had come from the prison so his mouth nearly dropped in shock when she spoke.

"Can I sleep by you?" she finally whispered, her voice rough from disuse. Daryl thought it might be the first time she had spoken since the day they found the remains at the train track and now that he realized this it filled him with a sense of worry. Beth wasn't a quiet girl, in fact for as long as he'd known her she never truly shut up. She was constantly chattering away about something and it was the knowledge that her silence was likely in part due to him that got him to nod. She sank down beside him slowly as if she was afraid he was going to push her away at any moment. When he didn't Beth settled her back against the tree trunk, her bare arm brushing against his as Daryl cleared his throat.

"Just once." he grunted, causing Beth to look at him in surprise. It seemed Daryl hadn't been speaking much lately either. "This is a one time thing Greene." he amended causing Beth to give the slightest ghost of a smile as she nodded and nervously rested her head against his shoulder.

"Just this once." she agreed softly before closing her eyes.


	32. Alive

It is only by luck that he finds them, or rather that she finds him. Daryl wasn't even supposed to be out hunting that day but he could not stand being cooped up in Alexandria any longer. He needed to be outside, not just outside of the house, but truly _outside_. He knew that the walls had been built to keep walkers and dangerous people outside but sometimes it felt as if their sole purpose was to keep him in.

So he had taken to fleeing the walls nearly daily, using the pretext of hunting as his excuse. He saw the looks people gave him, the weary looks of the strangers that eyed him like he was either a piece of meat or some feral dog that might rip their throats out at any moment. He saw the looks his family gave him too, the 'your with us but you've gone' looks. They knew he had not lost what they had lost back in Atlanta. He had lost something much more than that.

They tried to offer him condolences and platitudes, the preacher had even offered to pray for him and it was only Carl grabbing hold of him that stopped him from punching the other man in the teeth. Daryl could have shaken Carl off in a heartbeat, of course, but the kid had seen too much already for Daryl to add even that tiny insignificant thing to the list.

But rather than soothing him their words only sent him running like the wild animal he was to the woods. It was like Joe had tried to tell him once before, he was an outdoor cat and he no longer found the need to pretend otherwise. Daryl simply breathed easier once he was outside. But it was because of that that they found each other again.

Daryl had been hunting a rabbit and he was on high alert for any dangers as he always was out there alone. Rick and Glenn had both offered to join him on his hunts but Daryl had pointedly refused them both. There was only one person's company he craved and being alone with someone else in the woods would feel to much like stepping on her memory.

Still Daryl knew how dangerous it was to be out there alone without backup so when he heard a twig snap behind him he turned from the tracks he was surveying with his bow aimed and his finger already dancing on the trigger.

Two dirty tired faces stared at him through his cross hairs but Daryl barely noticed the second one as his gaze tunneled to the dirty blonde staring at him in shock.

He barely trusts his voice to speak but somehow he is able to whisper the only thought his brain can manage to hold at the sight of her blue eyes. "Are you real?"

The smile the stretched across her lips convinced him even more than her nodding. Daryl could never seem to remember the nuances of Beth's smile just right.

"I'm real." she whispered.

The bow fell from his arms with a clatter at her words and Daryl nearly tripped over it in his hast to reach her, to close those last few feet of space between them. A distance he had never thought they would cross again.

His arms catch her around the waist and Daryl barely even noticed that he had lifted her off her feet until he heard the small gasp Beth made before she wound her arms around his neck. He holds her for a long moment, relying completely on the stranger she was traveling with to keep watch for both of them.

They are pressed together so tightly that Daryl can feel her heartbeat against his chest and the feel of it makes his arms tighten around her until he begins to wonder if she can breath. Beth didn't whisper a word of protest as she curled her fingers into his hair and Daryl buried his face against her shoulder.

"I thought you were dead." he admitted against the worn material of the gray cardigan he had found for her all those months ago.

Beth's fingers curl against him and one of her nails breaks the skin of his neck as she whispered back.

"I'm alive Daryl."

He put her down so her feet rested on the floor, the words lifting a weight from his chest he had not realized the heaviness of until it was gone. Beth moved her hands to cup his face, smiling at him as Daryl drew what he felt was his first real breath since that hallway as she whispered.

"I'm alive."


	33. Make Me

"You really do need to take a shower Daryl." Beth leaned against the porch railing as she surveyed him, his overgrown hair flopping down into his eyes as he looked up from the arrows he was shaping to glare at her.

"Not you too." he grumbled causing Beth to smile at him fondly. She knew that the others had been picking on him for days to take a shower and while she did not agree with their antics (Abraham had threatened to dump water on him in his sleep) she was beginning to agree with their point.

Beth knew why he wasn't showering of course, it was safer when you were out there beyond the walls to be dirty. The more grime and blood on you the less likely the walkers were to smell you and recognize you as human. But they weren't out among the walkers now. They had been in Alexandria for nearly two weeks and by some miracle it truly was what it seemed. It really was safe here and Beth was beginning to think that Daryl not showering was some kind of sign that he still did not truly feel as if he belonged there. But if he didn't belong neither did she.

They were a pair after all, a matched set despite all their differences. They rounded out each others flaws until they were the perfect team. That was how Beth knew that if she was ever going to get Daryl to understand that they could not just survive there but truly have lives in Alexandria, she needed to get him to shower first. (Plus sleeping next to him at night when they both stank was one thing but when it was just him it was a whole other story.)

"I just think that it's time. You don't have to go outside the walls for a few more days so..." Beth trailed off into silence before sighing as Daryl's glare did not lessen. "You could take a shower if you wanted."

Daryl rolled his eyes at her clearly fed up with his bodily hygiene being their topic of conversation."Come over here and make me." He grunted almost mockingly before turning away from her to look back at his arrows. Beth's eyebrows rose at his words but she couldn't honestly tell if Daryl had even realized the suggestive nature of his statement.

"Okay." she agreed, grinning as Daryl looked up at her with his glare replaced by a look of confusion.

"What?" Daryl finally mumbled, making Beth's grin only stretched wider.

Feeling suddenly bold Beth shrugged before stepping forward and pulling the half formed arrow from his hands. Daryl looked at it briefly before looking back at Beth, his eyes widening in surprise as she leaned down to whisper in his ear, "I'll make you."

She didn't say another word as she turned to walk inside the house but she heard Daryl's footsteps following after her quickly.


	34. Don't Leave

She did not know what she had expected her interview with the leader of the Alexandria community to be like but she had certainly not been expecting the first question she was asked after stating her name to be, "Any relation to a Maggie Greene?"

Beth was barely able to answer Deanna she was so shocked to hear her sister's name fall from this stranger's lips. Her and Morgan had only stopped in Alexandria because Aaron had assured them they would be able to leave after they had rested for a few days. Her ankle was sprained and they were running low on supplies so it seemed worth it to them to work for this community for a little while to get what they needed and continue the last part of their journey to DC to find her family.

She had not been expecting to find them here, hidden in a town that looked more out of place than the dead walking outside its walls.

But according to this woman they were so Beth let her lead them like a reverse funeral procession to a two story blue house at the edge of the town. With every step she took she felt her heart hammering in her throat as she tried to remind herself it might not truly be her family, and if it was _he_ might not be with them.

But then Deanna knocked on the door and Carl answered it with a laugh still dying on his lips and everything turned to chaos.

Beth didn't know if he had truly even gotten a glimpse of her face before she was pushing past Deanna to throw her arms around him, surprise registering in the back of her mind that he now had an inch on her height. He had stumbled back a step in surprise which had brought Beth into the house and she heard someone scream her name before she pulled away from Carl to enter a string of hugs that never seemed to end.

She still didn't know who had started to cry first, Maggie or herself but by the time they let go of each other her face was wet with tears. Arms after arms engulfed her, holding her so tightly that she thought she might crumble to dust at any moment.

She had never expected to find so many of them still alive.

And finally they have all held her, they have all reassured themselves that they are not dreaming and she is real, all of them but one.

He was sitting in a windowsill and watching the hugs and tears of joy from the background as if he had no right to be a part of it when truly he was the one who deserved to hold her the most. Beth walked to him slowly, almost afraid she was going to startle him, and she felt a shiver of shock when she noticed the tears streaked down his face. She was still a foot from him when he stood and reached out to pull her to him with a gasp like he had just broken the surface after swimming to a great depth.

Neither of them said anything as they held each other for what felt like a life time, Beth's head against his chest and his chin resting on her hair. It was the hug she had wanted to give him in that hallway only long overdue.

When he finally pulled away from her Daryl rose his hands to cup her face, his eyes tracing the scar the bullet had left in her forehead as he whispered one word, "How?"

Finding herself nearly unable to speak Beth let Morgan recant most of their shared tale but there were parts that she had to relive all on her own. She sat on the windowsill between Maggie and Daryl, her sister not letting go of her hand and Daryl's eyes never leaving hers as she recounted how Shepard had watched from the windows when they fled the hospital. She had seen when Tyreese had to stash her body in the back of a car to flee the walkers.

Sasha finally managed to truly look at Beth when she said her brother's name and Beth saw in that moment that while she was happy that Beth was alive there was a part of her that was wishing Tyreese would somehow walk through that door too, brought back to life. But even though she didn't know when or how Beth knew that Tyreese was truly gone and that was one miracle that could never happen.

But still Beth can offer her some comfort, "He saved me. Leaving me in that car saved me."

And it seemed like such a little thing to offer to Sasha but she closed her eyes before nodding once, as if she was accepting that no more of the dead would be returning to them.

Beth had to take several deep breaths before she was able to finish her story. She told them quickly about how Shepard had refused to let Beth's final resting place be her automobile tomb so she had taken a few cops out with her to bring Beth's body back so they could bury her and give her a better final resting place. But when they reached the car they did not find a dead girl but a woman barely clinging to life. Her heartbeat had been so faint it was almost nonexistent but they had taken her back to the hospital where Edwards had used far more than the allotted resources to repair the damage the bullet had done to her skull.

In the end it, what truly saved her life was their guilt.

By the time she finished telling her story Beth was to exhausted to hear theirs. She let everyone hug her one last time before she laid down on the couch Daryl had offered for her to sleep on. She knew without asking that it was where he usually spent his nights so when he moved to leave the room with the others Beth propped herself up on one elbow and called after him.

"Daryl wait." he turned back to look at her with those blue eyes that had haunted her in the hospital, having nothing more than her faith in him to tell her that he was alive after the funeral home. She could not bear the thought of him leaving her again so soon after being truly reunited. With that thought in mind she reached her hand towards him and whispered softly. "Please, don't leave."

Beth saw his body visibly tense up at her words before he nodded and walked over to her slowly. She turned and pressed her back into the couch to give him room to sit down beside her. Daryl did so nervously, as if he was afraid that his touch might break her but when she smiled at him in encouragement he stretched out on the couch next to her, both of them barely fitting in the tight space.

For a moment the only sound between them was their uneven breaths before Beth snaked her arms around him timidly, pressing her face into the space between his shoulder blades. She held him like she had that day all those months ago, the day where they broke down each others walls like bombs and sent their pasts up in ashes.

Daryl reached him arm up and placed his hands over hers, their fingers clutching each others so tightly Beth thought she could feel his pulse beating in her hand.

"I'm never gonna leave you again." she promised into the thin material of his shirt.

Daryl's hands tightened on hers before he whispered so softly she almost didn't hear him.

"You never did."


	35. Five Seconds

He barely managed to catch Beth's arm before she walked over to the cop. The light of fire was in her eyes and Daryl could tell just by looking at her that she had been about to do something incredibly dangerous and more than likely incredibly stupid.

"We're going." he spat at the woman who turned her cold gaze onto him as he pulled Beth away from her. "And the boy's coming with us." He motioned for Noah to follow him back to the others and he did so after a pause, casting a terrified look over his shoulder at the cop as he did so.

"He's not going anywhere with you." the woman repeated, taking a step forward. Daryl shoved Beth closer into the group before turning back to the cops, Rick close to his side.

"He's comin' with us." Daryl growled, his voice sounding as feral as he felt as he stared down the hallway. "Or we'll kill you all."

They fell into a stalemate, both sides with guns raised and fingers poised on the trigger just waiting for the first shot to fire. Daryl had enough time to hope that Beth would be able to get out of the line of fire before another man spoke at the end of the hallway.

"Just let him go Dawn." a white coated man pleaded, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "Noah's very easily replaceable." Daryl heard Beth draw in a deep breath behind him before the man continued. "He's not worth our lives."

Silence stretched on as no one moved, not a single gun wavering until finally the woman in charge dropped her gun to her side with a shake of her head.

"Leave. Now." she barked before turning her back on them.

They did not have to be told twice and within seconds they were heading down the stairs like a rampant stampede. Seeing that Tyreese was already helping Carol who looked like she was barely managing to walk Daryl pushed to the head of the group with Beth close to his side. Their arms brushed every few steps and Daryl was struggling to fight off the urge to swoop her up into his arms and carry her out of the hospital.

He managed to last until the second floor before he could wait no longer. The staircase behind them remained empty and the lobby was looming when they turned onto the landing to the start of the first floor. Beth and him were the lead but he grabbed her arm to get her to stop, her blue eyes wide on his as he shoved his crossbow at Rick.

The other man took the bow in shock, barely able to balance his gun and the bow in his arms as Daryl grunted at him.

"Five seconds."

Before any of them could ask what he meant or tell him to keep moving he turned to Beth and pulled her to him at the same time as she nearly fell into his arms.

_One._

Their arms wrapped tight around each other and Daryl blocked out the thoughts of the people huddled on the staircase behind them, shoved away thoughts of danger and the cops following after them. All he let himself focus on was the woman he was finally holding in his arms again.

_Two._

"Don't you ever do that again." he whispered into her ear, his arms tightening around her waist at the mere thought of the move she had almost made. He had seen the flash of steel in her eyes before she took a step towards that cop, he knew that whatever she had been planning it had not been good. And while he knew that Beth was more than capable of taking care of herself he also knew that in this world one needed to pick their battles very carefully. Daryl knew somehow that the battle Beth had almost started would have been one she would have lost.

_Three._

"Do what?" Beth questioned in a whisper as she curled her fists into the material of his vest. Daryl felt a pang of disbelief that she was actually asking him that question, how could she not already know?

_Four._

"Risk your life for nothin'." he clarified, his voice coming out rough as he thought about all the possible ways things could have gone bad up in that hallway. He imagined Beth dying a thousand different ways and he felt his throat tighten at the very idea.

_Five._

"I can't loose you again." Daryl whispered into her hair before pulling away. Their five seconds were up and they needed to move. Daryl turned to take his bow back from Rick who was looking between him and Beth with eyes wide in realization. Daryl chose to ignore him, they could talk later about whatever conclusion he had just come to from their hug, before heading back down the stairs with Beth at his side.

They were almost to the doors of the lobby when Beth reached down to intertwine her fingers with his "You're not gonna lose me." she promised before pushing open the door to the mid-afternoon sunshine. "You're stuck with me Dixon."


End file.
